Mass. Federal Judge Says Restaurant Owners Sustained No Covered ‘Physical Loss’

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge has dismissed a COVID-19 business interruption action filed by the owners of six restaurants, ruling that they did not sustain “direct physical loss or damage,” as required by the terms of their policy.

In a March 24 order, Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts explained that there was no “enduring impact to the actual integrity of the properties at issue,” and that the phrase “direct physical loss of or damage” “does not encompass transient phenomena of no lasting effect, much less real or imagined reputational harm.” …