According to Antonio Romanucci, a speaker on today’s Crain’s “Crisis Relief for Businesses” webcast, he has yet to see a single insurance company honor a business interruption claim due to COVID-19 and the resulting stay-at-home orders.
As he points out in this article:
The devil is in the details here, and there are several parts of insurance policies that are at the heart of the discussions:
- Does a policy cover “All Risks” against loss or physical damage or is there “Stated Peril” for loss or damage to policies based on certain, covered causes?
- Is there coverage for losses due to decisions or directions by a Civil Authority, like the government directed shutdown of non-essential businesses?
- Is there a Virus Exclusion that does not cover losses due to viruses or bacteria, which could be general or name specific viruses or bacteria?
Regardless of the language in their policy, business owners should file a claim in writing to determine their insurance company’s response and, if the claim is denied, consider a conversation with a legal expert to have their policy reviewed and consider possible next steps, which could include the filing of a legal complaint to bring in the judicial system to review the insurance contract and declare whether or not coverage is deserved.
Insurance companies have collected billions of dollars in premiums that should first be paid to policyholders to keep those smaller businesses from going bankrupt. If the pandemic leads to critical financial strain on the insurance industry, then those enormous corporations should turn to the federal government for a bailout, very much like what is being given to the airline industry.
Read the full article here:
https://rblaw.net/covid-19-has-devastated-the-restaurant-industry-why-arent-their-insurance-companies-helping/
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