Business Interruption Insurance And Covid-19 teleConference Update

Covid-19 has led to an unprecedented closure of businesses world-wide.  Many businesses have business interruption insurance which is intended to cover losses when business is shut down or curtailed because of damage to property or order of civil authority.  Accordingly, Covid-19 has led to an unprecedented number of business interruption insurance claims.  Months into the Covid-19 several cases including Thomas Keller and In-N-Out are litigating denial of coverage over Coving-19 claims. 

Such claims tread into an undeveloped area of law.  When and under what conditions may a virus be deemed to be “property damage?”  When and under what conditions will coverage be afforded for closure due to order of “civil authority?”  

Many insurance policies have exclusions for damage caused by virus.  Are those exclusions enforceable?  Other policies offer limited coverage for closure due to virus.  How should such coverages be treated?  How should business interruption damages be calculated?  Will governmental assistance require off-sets?  Will local, state, or national legislatures or regulators step in to add coverages, eliminate exclusions, or dictate policy interpretation?

What strategies should policyholders employ in advancing claims, given limited access to the courts?  What are the defenses insurance companies are likely to raise in response?  

This webinar will help attorneys assist clients in analyzing and resolving business interruption insurance claims.  It will approach the issues from both the policyholder and insurance company perspective, as both perspectives are at play in this undeveloped area of insurance coverage law.  

Topics will Include:

• General framework of business interruption insurance coverage
• The (deadly) effect of a broad virus exclusion
• Arguments pro/con when and how virus may be property damage
• Arguments pro/con when and how coverage for closure by civil authority is triggered
• Strategies for pursuing or defending against claims
  
  David A. Shaneyfelt represents policyholders in a wide variety of insurance coverage disputes against insurance companies.  He is a former shareholder with the New York-based law firm of Anderson Kill, and served as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, in Washington, D.C.  He has thirty years’ experience in litigating complex civil matters in state and Federal courts across the country. He now practices with the Alvarez Firm in Calabasas, California.
  
  Raymond J. Tittmann advises and represents carriers across a spectrum of insurance products, and is currently retained to analyze Covid-19 claims across the country in a multitude of contexts.  Law360 recently named him MVP of the year for 2019 in the field of insurance.  He opened his own insurance boutique firm in January 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the states.