Boston-Area Restaurants Not Covered for COVID-19 Losses, Federal Judge Rules

BOSTON — The owners of a group of Boston-area restaurants cannot recoup their COVID-19 business interruption losses from The Cincinnati Casualty Co. because they did not sustain “direct physical loss or physical damage” to their insured properties, a federal magistrate judge has ruled.

In a Sept. 16 order, Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts awarded Cincinnati summary judgment, concluding that neither the virus itself nor government closure orders cause “physical loss” or “physical damage.”

The lawsuit was filed by BN Farm LLC d/b/a The Farm Bar and Grille Essex, BNIpswich LLC …