Historic Hollywood Restaurant Loses Bid for COVID-19 Coverage

LOS ANGELES — The owner of a 100-year-old Hollywood, Calif., restaurant cannot collect insurance proceeds from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance USA Inc. for its COVID-19-related losses because it did not suffer “direct physical loss of or damage” to its insured property, a state judge has ruled.

In a Nov. 9 order, Judge Monica Bachner of the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed The Musso & Frank Grill Company Inc.’s action without leave to amend, ruling that “losses from inability to use property do not amount to direct physical loss of or damage to property; there must be a ‘distinct, demonstrable, physical alteration’ …