As previously reported in this blog, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) brought a case against a variety of insurers under 21 policy wordings seeking clarification of sample clauses because the carriers refused to pay any U.K. claims relating to COVID-19 business interruptions largely for hospitality businesses. The policyholders seem to have won most of the coverage issues, and indeed the carriers have announced that they would book significant losses. The basic issues involved the…

In the last few weeks, since our last blog on this topic, another 50 cases have been filed seeking recovery of business-interruption losses from COVID-19. These include a case brought on behalf of adult entertainment clubs shut down by the virus-related closure orders (Rialto Pockets, et al v. Lloyd’s of London, Civ. No. 2:2020cv07709 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2020)), and a case claiming that covered governmental negligence in stopping COVID-19 caused the…

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of businesses of all sizes have been forced to file lawsuits against their property insurers for failing to honor their contractual obligations to provide business interruption, extra expense, civil authority, and other coverage for the substantial losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this onslaught of litigation has produced little progress thus far, leaving hundreds of business-owner plaintiffs and thousands more interested outside observers waiting for the…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions of higher education are facing significant revenue challenges and incurring extra expenses for which their insurance programs should provide relief. Potentially covered sources of loss and damage include (1) efforts to make buildings safe for students, faculty, staff, and administrators, (2) tuition adjustments, loss of athletic and extra-curricular events revenue and related sponsorships, and (3) extra expenses and/or lost revenue related to student housing issues.…

In 1964, futurist Arthur C. Clarke predicted that in 50 years, people “will no longer commute—they will communicate.” For a significant portion of the American workforce, the future is now. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how we communicate: The virtual meeting is suddenly our primary means of interaction with coworkers. Video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco’s WebEx have seen unprecedented spikes in active users. As companies transition from triage to planning for the…

The insurance industry in the United States continues to thwart legislative solutions for disputed COVID-19-related losses under property/business interruption policies and resists efforts to group lawsuits together into multi-district federal litigation or class actions. Meanwhile, the independent regulator of insurers in the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is trying to take a more organized and direct approach. Although the FCA indicated that it did not believe coverage existed for most claims for COVID-19-related…

In the latest episode of the podcast series Insurance Considerations Amid COVID-19, we are joined by Deborah White, president of the Retail Litigation Center (RLC) and senior executive vice president and general counsel of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). Deborah provides insight and analysis regarding the retail industry’s varied and innovative response to the pandemic, including how large retailers deal with the patchwork of evolving state and local regulations and how they are innovating…