Federal Judge Dismisses Pa. Restaurant’s COVID-19 Coverage Action

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania restaurant is not entitled to coverage for COVID-19 business interruption losses because it has not shown a “direct loss of or damage” to its insured property, a federal judge has ruled.

In a Jan. 15 order, Judge William S. Stickman IV of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that construing “direct physical loss of or damage to” as applying to mere economic losses caused by governmental orders limiting the use of property “would stretch the language beyond the plain meaning of its terms and beyond the interpretive authority of the court.”