Cases

El Novillo Restaurant et al. v. Certain Underwriters At Lloyd’s London et al.

A federal court in Florida recently dismissed a suit brought by a group of Florida restaurants for failure to state a claim for business coverage for COVID-19 related losses. The restaurants’ complaint lacked allegations of physical damage to the insured property, relying instead on the absence of a virus exclusion in the policy to establish coverage. The court sided with insurer Lloyd’s Underwriters of London when it ruled that the mere absence of a virus exclusion in the policy did not alone establish coverage for virus related losses. The court also found that the alleged losses from the mandated government shutdown of the restaurants did not constitute physical damage of the type insured against, thereby precluding the restaurants’ recovery under the subject policy.