Shipbuilding Company That Lost Millions Because Of COVID Sues Insurers

Huntington Ingalls Industries is suing some of the world’s biggest financial firms to recover losses suffered due to COVID-19 at its shipyards, including Newport News Shipbuilding.

The insurers maintain that, because the shipyards didn’t suffer physical damage, their coverage won’t kick in.

The company is suing in Vermont because that’s where its risk management subsidiary is located, and where all 33 of the insurers it is suing do business.

Superior Court Judge Robert Mello ruled a workplace hit by COVID-19 could be said to suffer physical damage, but he concluded that the insurers don’t have to pay HII because its Newport News and Mississippi shipyards didn’t close down.

Huntington Ingalls has appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court. ‘This holding puts (HII) in a classic ‘heads you win, tails we lose’ scenario,’ the company argued in its appeal.