Restaurant Owners Lose COVID-19 Coverage Battle in Ga. Federal Court

ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge has awarded Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance Co. judgment on the pleadings in a COVID-19 coverage action filed by two restaurant owners, finding they failed to allege the threatened presence of the virus on their property constituted “direct physical loss of or damage.”

In a Dec. 9 order, Judge William M. Ray II of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia explained that “actual, tangible alteration” to property is required to trigger coverage.

The K’s Inc. owns Sissy K’s, a Boston bar and restaurant. The Last Resort-Mobile LLC owns Poindexter’s, a Mobile, …