Endurance Insurance Cannot Shake Hotelier’s COVID-19 Coverage Action

BOSTON — A California federal judge has refused to dismiss a case in which a hotel owner seeks business interruption losses arising from a COVID-19 “superspreader” event at one of its facilities, ruling it is unclear whether the coverage is subject to a $100,000 self-insured retention (SIR).

In a Feb. 26 order, Judge Cormac J. Carney of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts found the policy, issued by Endurance American Specialty Insurance Co., “gave plaintiff reasonable expectations that BI losses would be covered even if, as in the usual case, they did not result in significant cleanup …