The legal media have been inundated with articles by lawyers who represent policyholders and insurance companies discussing business interruption claims arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of this discussion has carried over into the mainstream media, including a recent Wall Street Journal article. Much of the discussion focuses on two issues. First, property insurance policies require “direct physical loss or damage” to property (either to the insured property, or non-insured property within a certain distance of the insured property for a coverage called “civil authority”). A virus has never been found to cause damage to property. Second, many (but not all) of these policies have a virus exclusion. I’m not going to write more here about those issues. Plenty of electronic ink has been spilled on them already. But I haven’t seen anyone write about another exclusion that seems likely to apply to these claims if policyholders can somehow convince a court that there was “direct physical loss or damage” to property: the ordinance or law exclusion.
Continue Reading COVID-19 Business Interruption Insurance Claims – Don’t Overlook the Ordinance Or Law Exclusion