Popular New Orleans Restaurant Loses Battle for COVID-19 Coverage

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge has dismissed a COVID-19 insurance action filed against State Farm Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. by the owner of a popular New Orleans restaurant, ruling that it did not sustain direct physical loss or damage, as required by the policy.

In a Sept. 21 order, Chief Judge Nannette Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana explained that government closure orders issued in response to the virus did not render Muriel’s New Orleans LLC’s eatery “unusable and uninhabitable.”

Rather, the closure orders suspended restaurant dining operations but allowed …