6th Cir. Upholds Dismissal of Restaurants’ COVID-19 Coverage Action

CINCINNATI — Ohio restaurant owners cannot recoup economic losses they sustained during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic because they did not sustain “direct physical loss of or damage” to insured property as required by the policy, a federal appellate court has ruled.

In a Dec. 21 opinion, the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio that “direct and “physical” are adjectives describing both “loss of” and “damage to” the insured premises. Therefore, neither the COVID-19 virus nor the state government orders caused “direct physical loss of or …