Virus Exclusion Defeats Nevada Salon’s Bid for COVID-19 Coverage

HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal judge has awarded Sentinel Insurance Company Ltd. judgment on the pleadings in a Nevada beauty salon’s COVID-19 coverage action, holding that the alleged losses fall under the policy’s virus exclusion.

In a Nov. 9 order, Judge Kari A. Dooley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut agreed with the reasoning of other judges in the district that the exclusion is unambiguous and applies to losses caused directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 virus.

The policy’s virus exclusion bars coverage “for loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by the presence, growth, proliferation, …