A restaurant operator urged a Michigan appeals court Wednesday to consider a layman's understanding of "direct physical loss or damage" when determining whether its insurance should cover losses from pandemic-related shutdowns, comparing the phrase's meaning to temporarily taking a toy away from a child.
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This March marks the unofficial one-year anniversary of the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused widespread financial
ruin to businesses across the United States. In their hour of
greatest need, thousands of these companies turned to their
commercial property insurers only to receive across-the-board
coverage denials. Some policyholders filed coverage lawsuits, but
by taking advantage of pleading deficiencies, insurers managed to
score some early wins, which they used to support their false
narrative that property policies do not cover business income
losses due to the presence of the virus.