A federal judge in western Pennsylvania has ruled that losses from the COVID-19 pandemic and related government shut-down orders do not trigger business interruption (BI) coverage under Erie Insurance’s (Erie) commercial “all risk” property policies.
Reuters reported that Chief US District Judge Mark Hornak rejected the arguments of businesses in eight states and the District of Columbia, ruling: “As devastating as COVID-19 has been from a health and safety standpoint, property has not been lost or damaged by the presence of the virus, in the sense that people cannot access, use, or inhabit it due to its impaired physical condition.”
