Struggling merchants, insurers battle over pandemic coverage

Nick Gavrilides, the owner of the Soup Spoon, poses at one of his two restaurants in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, July 16, 2020. Restaurants, bars and other merchants struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are desperately reaching out for a lifeline from insurers that in turn contend they are being miscast as potential saviors. In one of the first decisions issued on that question, a Michigan state judge sided with an insurer's rejection of a claim for $650,000 for two months of losses that Gavrilides said he suffered at two restaurants. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Nick Gavrilides, the owner of the Soup Spoon, poses at one of his two restaurants in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, July 16, 2020. Restaurants, bars and other merchants struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are desperately reaching out for a lifeline from insurers that in turn contend they are being miscast as potential saviors. In one of the first decisions issued on that question, a Michigan state judge sided with an insurer's rejection of a claim for $650,000 for two months of losses that Gavrilides said he suffered at two restaurants. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Restaurants, bars and other merchants struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are desperately reaching out for a lifeline from insurers that, in turn, contend they are being miscast as potential saviors.

Shutdowns and crowd restrictions imposed by state and local governments to limit the spread of the virus have resulted in more than $1 trillion in estimated losses so far for thousands of rapidly sinking small businesses.

That has prompted a flood of claims under business interruption insurance policies that have been almost universally rejected for a variety of reasons, including boilerplate provisions inserted by insurers after the SARS outbreak in 2003 to exclude disruptions caused by virus and bacteria.

"This is an existential threat," said John Houghtaling, a New Orleans attorney who is representing restaurants and other businesses seeking about $8 billion in losses that he estimated they will suffer during the pandemic. "A lot of people who did the right thing and bought this coverage thinking they would be thrown a lifeboat if disaster struck are now being told, 'Sorry, let the Coast Guard come and get you instead.'"

So many lawsuits have been filed against insurers in the U.S. that a Thursday hearing has been scheduled before a federal judicial panel in Washington to decide how to manage them all in the months - and possibly years - ahead. The panel's review involves more than 200 federal complaints in addition to the other lawsuits filed in state courts by the owners of meat-and-potato cafes as well as some of the nation's best-known and most exclusive restaurants.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the thorny issue in April when he told reporters he suspected many insurers were dodging their obligations.

"You have people that have never asked for business interruption insurance (payments), and they've been paying a lot of money for a lot of years for the privilege of having it," Trump said. "And then when they finally need it, the insurance company says, 'We're not going to give it.' We can't let that happen."

Although sympathetic to their policyholders' plights, insurers said most business interruption policies were designed to cover shutdowns caused by catastrophes such as hurricanes and terrorist attacks while excluding pandemics that cause widespread losses too staggering to cover, even for an industry sitting on $850 billion in reserves. Only a small number of businesses sought additional coverage that specifically includes losses caused by pandemics, said David Sampson, CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, an industry trade group.

Even so, Lloyd's of London has estimated the insurance industry still will pay out $107 billion in pandemic-related claims, more than the combined amounts doled out after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Besides businesses that bought special coverage, the claims include payouts to major sporting and entertainment events that bought cancellation policies coverage, such as the Wimbledon tennis tournament that is collecting about $140 million under its pandemic policy. Insurers also are paying workers' compensation claims for employees who get sick on the job.

"This popular meme out there that the insurance industry isn't paying for losses is just not true," Sampson said.