Law360 is providing free access to its coronavirus coverage to make sure all members of the legal community have accurate information in this time of uncertainty and change. Use the form below to sign up for any of our weekly newsletters. Signing up for any of our section newsletters will opt you in to the weekly Coronavirus briefing.
Sign up for our Class Action newsletter
You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:
Thank You!
Law360 (March 19, 2021, 5:02 PM EDT) -- The owner of a Florida beauty salon filed a proposed class suit against Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. on Thursday seeking coverage for COVID-19-related business losses, arguing that the "all-risk" property insurance policy should include interruptions caused by the virus.
Patrice Bourgier, who owns a beauty salon in Miami, said her insurance policy does not exclude the losses her business suffered. These losses resulted not just from government-mandated shutdown orders early in the pandemic but also from having to completely reconfigure the space and change operations in order to mitigate spread of the coronavirus, according to the suit.
"The combination of coronavirus contamination and these necessary physical restrictions and alterations have altered the character of businesses' properties, and seriously impaired businesses' ability to use their properties," Bourgier said. "Therefore, over the past 12 months, businesses nationwide, including in Miami-Dade, have suffered not only physical loss of and damage to their property, but also an accompanying loss of business income."
While other insurers chose in 2006 to incorporate a virus exclusion drafted by the Insurance Services Office after the SARS epidemic, Bourgier says that Hartford did not add this language to its policies. Bourgier's policy instead includes a specific virus inclusion provision that provides limited coverage for losses caused by fungi, wet rot, dry rot, bacteria and virus.
The insurer denied Bourgier's claims for losses because the virus did not actually contaminate her business property, but Bourgier says that given the widespread contamination and infection in Miami-Dade County, "the coronavirus has undoubtedly been physically present on plaintiff's property."
"There is nothing that businesses like restaurants and hair salons can practically do — other than shutting down entirely — to permanently and reliably eliminate contamination by the coronavirus," Bourgier said.
She is seeking to represent a nationwide class of similarly situated business owners whose claims for COVID-19-related losses have been denied by Hartford.
Representatives for the parties did not respond to requests for comment.
Bourgier is represented by Steven C. Marks, Aaron S. Podhurst, Lea P. Bucciero, Kristina M. Infante and Pablo Rojas of Podhurst Orseck PA and Stephen N. Zack, Bruce Weil, James Lee and Marshall Dore Louis of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
Counsel information for Hartford was not immediately available.
The case is Bourgier et al. v. Hartford Casualty Insurance Co., case number 1:21-cv-21053, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
--Editing by Daniel King.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
