In Santo’s Italian Café v. Acuity Ins. Co., issued on September 22, the 6th Circuit affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of a business interruption lawsuit brought by an Italian restaurant, marking the third straight victory for insurers in the federal appellate courts.
The 6th Circuit ruling was a narrow one, rejecting the restaurant’s claim that the government shutdown order, alone, caused “direct physical loss of or damage to property.” The court noted that the policyholder had not alleged that the virus was present on the property, nor that the property was uninhabitable or unusable as a result.
