A California Second Appellate District panel recently gave the opinion that California state courts, as opposed to US district courts, do not grant judges the authority to dismiss cases based on their views on the likelihood of a case to prevail prior to hearing evidence. This ruling came out due to hotel owners/insurance policyholders seeking insurance coverage claims due to the COVID-19 shutdown and not being allowed to provide evidence at this point.
The question at issue is if specific business interruption policies include communicable diseases, if COVID-19 is considered that, and what, if any, loss a company suffers due to it. A company must show a physical loss. Policyholders state they have suffered loss while insurance carriers state there are communicable disease carveouts.
This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact Oregon class actions.
