The French Laundry coronavirus lawsuit was noted in yesterday’s post, Coronavirus Insurance Coverage Update March 27—The French Laundry Files Suit Against Its Insurer Over Coronavirus Business Closure Claim Denial. John Houghtaling was kind to provide me a copy of the filing for our readers.
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The French Laundry is a sublime restaurant. Thomas Keller is an amazing and world-renown chef. The picture above was taken while at the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters Annual Conference.
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New Jersey started the coronavirus business insurance legislation, but just like a virus, it is spreading to other jurisdictions. Ohio and Massachusetts filed very similar bills to what was filed in the New Jersey Assembly.
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Holly Soffer wrote a guest blog yesterday, COVID-19 and The New Jersey Assembly Bill 3844, which concerned a bill that would retroactively void the “virus” exclusion and potentially open up the business income loss, extra expense, and civil authority coverages under commercial policies to those businesses with less than 100 employees. I summarily dismissed this bill in, Coronavirus Insurance Coverage Update—Politicians Becoming Involved. But this involves New Jersey, and as one great sports commentator reminds us about our opinions, “not so fast, my friend.”
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NOTE: This guest blog post is by Holly Soffer, Esq., a policyholder attorney and General Counsel to the American Association of Public Insurance Adjusters.
While many of us are working at home, we have more time to spend analyzing and contemplating the roles of the government and the insurance industry in responding to the coronavirus crisis. This blog post is an extension of that opportunity.
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Larry Bache will host a livestream on The Myths and Reality of Coronavirus Coverage at 11:00 am EDT. (Click on link to join the livestream: https://www.facebook.com/events/231939511545185/).
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Insurance company insurance defense counsel often offer articles and opinions worthy of study by policyholder advocates. Most of the time, third-party liability attorneys do not step over into first-party coverage issues. Yet, a notable liability attorney, Randy Maniloff, has done that regarding first-party coronavirus insurance coverage issues.
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The first coronavirus lawsuit filed was in Louisiana. The subject policy has no ISO virus exclusion which was discussed in, Coronavirus Insurance Coverage Update—The ISO Circular Regarding the Virus Exclusion. Louisiana attorney John Houghtaling filed the lawsuit, and he will undoubtedly be relying upon a Louisiana case, Widder v. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation,1 for the proposition that the coronavirus caused physical damage.
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My phone keeps blowing up regarding the coronavirus income claims while we are working hard catching up on our prior catastrophe losses and learning to work from home. One of our Los Angeles based attorneys, Derek Chaiken, told me: “The dog barking, kids crying and everybody else screaming in the background—Chip, I cannot take it anymore!” I do not think that business slowdown is covered anywhere, but I am certainly not the only business owner with morale problems, given the worldwide circumstances.
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This morning’s post, Coronavirus Insurance Coverage Update—United Policyholders Says Do Not Give Up While Georgia Insurance Commissioner Suggests Do Not Waste Your Time, suggests that the proper procedure for determining coverage is to first read the insurance policy. Many of the policies sent to me so far have an ISO exclusion regarding loss due to virus or bacteria.
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