Legal Sea Foods Loses Battle for COVID-19 Business Interruption Coverage

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has dismissed Legal Sea Foods’ COVID-19 coverage action against Strathmore Insurance Co., rejecting the restaurant chain’s argument that the pandemic caused “direct physical loss or damage” to its insured property.

In a March 5 order, Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said the virus “does not impact the structural integrity of property in the manner contemplated by the policy and thus cannot constitute ‘direct physical loss of or damage to’ property.”

“A virus is incapable of damaging physical structures because the virus harms human beings, not …