Florida Restaurant Asks 11th Circuit to Reexamine Virus Coverage Suit

A Florida steakhouse is asking the Eleventh Circuit to reexamine its lawsuit seeking insurance coverage for COVID-19-related business interruptions. Rococo Steak LLC in St. Petersburg, Florida, has said it sustained direct physical loss or damage to its property caused by the pandemic and government-issued shutdown orders. Its insurer, Aspen Specialty Insurance Co., has refused to cover these damages in the restaurant’s “all risk” commercial insurance policy, says the steakhouse.

Rococo is asking the Eleventh Circuit to reverse the lower court’s dismissal with prejudice, issues on January 27th, saying U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington wrongly tossed the suit based on Aspen’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Aspen impermissibly asked the judge to decide a factual dispute over whether COVID-19 causes structural alterations to property and ambient air, Rococo has argued.

Rococo Steak is represented by Tim Burns of Burns Bowen Bair LLP and Steven H. Osber and Kyle S. Roberts of Conrad & Scherer LLP. You can read the full story at Law360.