Hospitality Companies Thought Insurance Coverage Would Be There for a Crisis. It Wasn’t

Joshua M. Bowman, chair of the firm’s Hospitality Practice Group, was quoted in Skift on April 12, 2021. The article, “Hospitality Companies Thought Insurance Coverage Would Be There for a Crisis. It Wasn’t,” describes the precedent that’s been set during the last year in cases where hospitality companies sue their insurer to get a business interruption insurance payout due to government-ordered pandemic restrictions.

Read the full article at skift.com.

From the article:

“‘It was an uphill battle to begin with, and the courts have not sided with the policyholders,’ said Joshua Bowman, a partner at Boston-based law firm Sherin and Lodgen and chair of the firm’s hospitality practice. ‘It’s highly unlikely they will side with many policyholders going forward.’

…’My law firm is not currently involved in any business interruption insurance claims representing the hospitality industry against the insurance industry,’ Bowman said. ‘Our firm made a decision where, if we found a case we thought we could win, we would bring it. We just couldn’t find that case.’

…’The insurance industry has experienced a major windfall because everybody is still paying their premiums,’ Bowman said. ‘The policyholders are suffering terribly, and the insurance industry is making out like bandits here.’

…’The insurance industry has walked between the raindrops for this whole crisis,’ Bowman said.

…There were several state-level bills pursued early in the pandemic calling for mandates to insurance companies to pay out business interruption insurance claims and get reimbursed from state government funds. Bowman worked in drafting one of these bills in Massachusetts, and others were filed in states like New Jersey and Ohio. Many stalled because states were grappling with their own dim financial outlook due to the pandemic.

…’I would think the insurance industry is going to be more reticent than ever about covering anything tied to a pandemic,’ Bowman said. ‘They fought every claim for Covid with tooth and nail, and they may tighten up their policies even more; though, I’m not sure they need to because they keep winning in court.'”