COVID BI Losses Appeal Before The Massachusetts Supreme Court

Justices on Massachusetts’ top court on Friday questioned why it should diverge from courts nationally that have found businesses are not entitled to insurance coverage for losses caused by COVID-19 as it heard an appeal by three restaurants.

In the first such case to reach a state’s supreme court, a lawyer for the restaurant owners told the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that a judge was wrong to toss their challenge to Strathmore Insurance Co’s denial of coverage for their losses.

Benjamin Zimmermann, a lawyer for the Coppa, Toro and Little Donkey restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, argued they, like other businesses, bought all-risk policies like Strathmore’s to protect against losses other policies would not cover.

Those policies provide coverage for when a property is rendered unsafe and unusable due to conditions stemming from events such as tornadoes and fires, but also from an undetectable deadly virus, said Zimmermann of Sugarman and Sugarman.