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Thank You! Law360 (May 24, 2021, 7:38 PM EDT)
By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo
After Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale restaurant in New Haven sued its insurance provider for refusing to pay for business losses related to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, a federal judge dismissed the case within just six months.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shea in December granted AmGUARD Insurance Co.’s motion to dismiss the case, concluding the restaurant’s insurance policy’s virus exclusion meant any losses due to the pandemic weren’t covered.
Like Lenny & Joe’s, an array of businesses, from restaurants to manufacturers and medical providers, have experienced pandemic-related losses in the past year, and several have turned to the courts when their insurance carriers denied coverage.
4 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. insurers are strengthening language in policies that cover business losses to protect them from future claims related to the coronavirus pandemic or other widespread illnesses that disrupt operations, industry sources say.
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a shuttered restaurant amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
New policies and renewals now define terms like “communicable disease” or “microorganism” – something existing policies often lacked, and which led to a flood of lawsuits that insurers have so far largely won.
Insurers rewrite business policies after pandemic legal tussles
By Alwyn Scott
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. insurers are strengthening language in policies that cover business losses to protect them from future claims related to the coronavirus pandemic or other widespread illnesses that disrupt operations, industry sources say.
New policies and renewals now define terms like communicable disease or microorganism – something existing policies often lacked, and which led to a flood of lawsuits that insurers have so far largely won.
An exclusion drafted by the Lloyd s Market Association, for example, says insurers will not cover any claim directly or indirectly arising out of, attributable to, or occurring concurrently or in any sequence with a Communicable Disease.
U.S. insurers are strengthening language in policies that cover business losses to protect them from future claims related to the coronavirus pandemic or