Thomas Keller and Oceana Grill sue insurance companies re COVID-19 closings

[Alex]

I have little to no knowledge in this area, so perhaps someone(s) who does can chime in.

 

CNN Business

Eater San Fran

Business Insurance mag

[rotuts]

Insurance companies are a For-Profit business.

 

their goal is to protect those profits.  Im sure they have strategies in place

 

to pay out as little as legally possible.  and only after expensive

 

legal  haranguing      its the nature of their business .

 

" 

• San Francisco mainstay Tadich Grill refuses to lay anyone off during the shelter-in-place period. “Our employees are our DNA,” Tadich CFO Melissa Buich says. “We couldn’t do this without each and every one of them.” [SF Gate] "

this is my very favorite restaurant in SF.  hasn't changed in eons .  good for them

[IndyRob]

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/03/24/562277.htm

 

Quote

Many business interruption policies exclude coverage for pandemics and require physical damage to occur on the site. Others can be ambiguous, leading to possible coverage, legal experts said.

 

Quote

On March 16, the owners of New Orleans restaurant

Oceana Grill sued Lloyd’s and officials in Louisiana, asking a state court to declare that the coronavirus, whether inside or outside the restaurant, is a type of “direct physical damage” that would require insurers to pay.

 

Apparently, there is no exclusion for pandemics in the policy, so the question is whether the presence of the virus constitutes physical damage to the property.

Edited March 30, 2020 by IndyRob (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Insurance is the sketchiest business in existence. They offer coverage to help you in a time of need right after figuring out every loophole and backdoor they can use to avoid helping you in a time of need. A coworker purchased cancellation insurance for a flight he was supposed to take from Minnesota to Florida. The trip was planned and payed for months before coronavirus was a thing of public knowledge. He was going to drive across the border from here in Ontario, Canada to catch the flight in Minnesota. With the arrival of coronavirus, the event the trip was for was cancelled and driving across the border to catch the flight was officially removed from being an option. But even though he can't legally cross the border to catch the flight, the cancellation insurance is null and void because the flight wasn't actually cancelled. Only his ability to catch the flight was cancelled. Stories like that make me root for the company involved to be one of the casualties of this event.