COVID-19 And Legal Gamesmanship

There is a belief that business closure orders by civil authorities trigger civil authority coverage in business income insurance policies if the orders allege property damage of some kind.

This is a misconception that is typical of generalizations about insurance contracts that come from the failure to actually read the policy language.

For example, most of the local and state governmental orders I’ve seen refer to property damage as a basis for mandatory business closures or operational changes.

Here is one of the 18 “WHEREAS’s” in the City of Key West State of Local Emergency Directive 2020-03: “WHEREAS, this order is given because of the propensity of the virus to spread person to person and because the virus physically is causing property damage due to its proclivity to attach to surfaces for prolonged periods of time;”

Dust has a proclivity to attach to surfaces, but does that result in “property damage” if I can remove it with a cloth? If I don’t vacuum my home for a month, have the floors been damaged? Admittedly, a virus can be more problematic than dust for most people, but does it actually cause damage by temporarily residing on the surface of property?