Ohio Judge Refuses to Dismiss Business Owners’ COVID-19 Coverage Action

CLEVELAND — An Ohio judge has denied State Farm Automobile Insurance Co.’s motion to dismiss a COVID-19 coverage action filed by a chain of salons and a pair of furniture stores, finding a question of fact as to whether the covered properties sustained “physical loss or damage.”

In a Nov. 17 order, Judge Maureen E. Clancy of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas found Dino Palmieri Salons Inc. and Fish Furniture Shop Inc. have sufficiently alleged that likely presence of the highly contagious virus in its salons and stores caused it to suffer a covered cause of loss.

In …