By: Edward M. Koch and Felix S. Yelin On July 2, 2020, an amended California Assembly Bill 1552 (Bill 1522 or the bill), which relates to commercial business interruption coverage of insured businesses during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, was referred to the California Senate Insurance Committee. Unlike other bills that various state legislatures are considering,…
By: Anthony L. Miscioscia and Timothy A. Carroll “These are, safe to say, uncertain times,” Siobhan Roberts, a science journalist, recently wrote for the New York Times, referencing the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, while the times may be uncertain, what the pandemic has not fundamentally altered are certain well-established legal standards governing first-party claims for…
By: Sean P. Mahoney, Michael O. Kassak and Eric B. Hermanson On April 20, 2020, two Philadelphia restaurants filed a petition with the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation (the Panel or JPMDL), seeking to transfer and consolidate all COVID-19 business interruption insurance cases in federal court to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District…
By: Eric B. Hermanson, Anthony L. Miscioscia, and Timothy A. Carroll Before the ink could even dry on our latest alert, regarding Ohio’s proposed bill, we learned that Massachusetts legislators had introduced their own COVID-19 bill — making it the third such bill in the span of about two weeks. Doubtless it will not be…
By: Anthony L. Miscioscia and Timothy A. Carroll Yesterday, on March 24, 2020, following in New Jersey’s footsteps, the Ohio legislature introduced a bill, H.B. No. 589, “[t]o require insurers offering business interruption insurance to cover losses attributable to viruses and pandemics,” by which the legislature is referring to COVID-19. The bill provides that “every…
By: Edward M. Koch and Elizabeth C. Dolce Commentary on insurance coverage for businesses in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) has largely, and unsurprisingly, focused on business interruption losses, civil authority provisions, and virus exclusions. However, to get there, policyholders must first get past the gatekeeper to coverage: the “direct physical loss or damage” requirement.…
