Insurance Update

We bring you our September Insurance Update.

A flurry of decisions over pandemic-related business interruption claims were handed down over the past month.  We discuss many of these along with the MDL Panel’s decision not to centralize COVID-19 business interruption coverage suits.

We also address a non-coronavirus business interruption claim by a restaurant.  The main issue there was whether excessive dust caused by nearby roadwork amounts to a covered claim where the policy requires a “direct physical loss.”

We highlight a few decisions discussing waiver and estoppel and what happens when an insurer fails to timely reserve its rights.

We also include cases involving malicious prosecution, construction defects, assault and battery and whether policy exclusions bar coverage for such claims.

We end with a practical decision on allocating damage caused by groundwater contamination.

We hope that you find these cases informative.

Rob Tugander and Greg Mann