Policyholders Seek Certification of COVID-19 Coverage Questions to Wash. Supreme Court

SEATTLE — A group of policyholders have asked a federal judge to certify to the Washington Supreme Court “unsettled” questions regarding insurance coverage for COVID-19 related losses, arguing that “there is a robust history of certifying important questions of state insurance law.”

In a Feb. 18 brief, plaintiffs asked Judge Barbara J. Rothstein of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to certify the question of whether government COVID-19 shutdown orders cause a “direct physical loss of insured property.”

Plaintiffs also asked Judge Rothstein to certify the question of whether the state’s efficient proximate case rule requires …