Virus Exclusion Defeats N.J. Orthodontics Practice’s COVID-19 Coverage Efforts

CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge has awarded Sentinel Insurance Co. judgment on the pleadings in an orthodontics practice’s COVID-19 coverage action, ruling that the alleged losses fall within the policy’s virus exclusion.

In a Nov. 1 order, Judge Robert B. Kugler of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey explained that under the exclusion’s anti-concurrent clause, losses caused directly or indirectly by a virus are excluded from coverage, regardless of any other event in any other sequence that contributes to the loss.

Cedar Run Orthodontics d/b/a DeFelice Orthodontics owns and operates two dental practices …