(Article from Insurance Law Alert, December 2021)
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A New York trial court denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss a COVID-19-related coverage suit, finding that a communicable disease exclusion did not bar coverage. Tina Turner Musical LLC v. Chubb Ins. Co. of Europe SE, 2021 WL 5818352 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Dec. 6, 2021).
The exclusion precluded coverage for “any communicable disease or threat or fear of communicable disease (whether actual or perceived) which leads to: . . . the imposition of quarantine or restriction in movement of people or animals by any national or international body [or] . . . any travel advisory or warning being issued by a national or international body or agency.” The court ruled that this provision did not apply because the policyholder’s losses stemmed from an order issued by the New York Governor rather than a national or international authority.
In a different matter, a New York trial court granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss a COVID-19-related coverage suit. Buffalo Bills, LLC v. American Guarantee and Liability Ins. Co., 2021 WL 5863939 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Dec. 7, 2021). There, a professional football team argued that it incurred “direct physical loss or damage” to property based on the loss of use of its stadium and the “alter[ation] [of] the structure of ambient air and Covered Property’s surfaces.” In response, the insurer contended that the policyholder’s loss was economic rather than physical, based on the temporary nature of the viral presence, among other things.