Chicago Small Businesses Sue West Bend Insurance for COVID-19 Coverage

CHICAGO — Two Chicago-area small business owners have sued West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. for coverage of losses they suffered when they were forced to close or limit operations in compliance with civil authority orders issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Sept. 15 class action complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Mashallah Inc. and Ranalli’s Park Ridge LLC contend that the policy’s virus exclusion does not bar coverage because their losses arise from the government closure orders, rather than COVID-19 itself.

“Here, the closure orders caused both property loss and …