Virus Exclusion Bars ‘Startup Incubator’ Claim for COVID-19 Losses, Calif. Federal Judge Rules

SAN FRANCISCO — A “startup incubator” that was forced to close its Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is barred from collecting business interruption coverage because the losses fall within the policy’s virus exclusion, a federal judge has ruled.

In an Oct. 22 order granting Hartford Fire Insurance Co. and Sentinel Insurance Company Ltd.’s motions to dismiss, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said that Founder Institute Inc. cannot “wriggle out of the exclusion by attaching a different label to its loss.”

Founder Institute contended that …