Pa. Federal Judge Remands COVID-19 Coverage Action, Citing ‘Novelty’ of State Law Issues

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge has remanded a Philadelphia law firm’s COVID-19 coverage action against Hanover Insurance Group, ruling that the case belongs in state court “given the novelty of the state law issue of insurance coverage for losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In an Aug. 14 order, Judge C. Darnell Jones II of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held that remand to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas is appropriate because “the Pennsylvania state courts are clearly better equipped to settle the uncertainty of obligation, and it is in the public’s interest …