Plaintiffs successfully argued against a motion to dismiss by alleging COVID-19 was present on their premises and required repairs and alterations to their properties. Legacy Sports Barbershop LLC v. Cont'l Cas. Co., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102545 (N. D. Ill. June 1, 2021).      Plaintiffs operated a barbershop, barbering school and hair salon. They were insured by Continental. Plaintiffs alleged that the presence of COVID-19 required that they install a new air filtration system, build a new outdoor patio to accommodate patrons outside, install social distancing barriers and germ sanitation stations, and remove 60% of their workstations to allow for social distancing indoors. Coverage under the Business Income and Civil Authority provisions in the policy were denied by Continental.     Plaintiff sued. Continental moved to dismiss because there was no "physical loss of or damage to" the properties. Continental also agued that any losses caused by a virus were excluded. The court found, however, that plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that the properties underwent a distinct, demonstrable, physical alteration, and therefore suffered "physical loss of or damage to" the properties.      Further, the applicability of the virus exclusion was not free from doubt. The policy did not specifically exclude from coverage damage caused by viruses, but instead excluded damage caused by the "presence growth, proliferation, spread or any activity of fungi, wet or dry rot or microbes." The exclusion said that "microbe" did not mean "microbes that were transmitted directly from person to person. Therefore, it was not clear whether "microbe" as defined in the policy included a virus such as SARS-CoV-2 because that virus could spread from person to person. Continental failed to establish that the claims were excluded from coverage at this stage.

from Insurance Law Hawaii https://ift.tt/3xJkVvx