This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation. Sign up to get the full version in your inbox every Thursday.
Did COVID cause ‘property damage’ to the subway?
And if so, is the MTA owed an insurance payout?
The MTA has billions of dollars riding on a lawsuit before New York’s highest court, which could enable the cash-strapped transit agency to recoup much of the money it lost during the COVID pandemic.
The suit centers on an insurance claim filed by Consolidated Restaurant Operations, which owns and operates dozens of restaurants, including Cantina Laredo, El Chico and Good Eats, as well as catering groups. The company argues its policy with Westport Insurance should cover the financial hit in 2020 when restaurants were forced to shut down at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has since killed more than 1.1 million people in the U.S.
A mid-level appeals court dismissed Consolidated Restaurant Operations’ suit. But the company appealed — and now the case has reached the state Court of Appeals.
The dispute centers on whether COVID-19 particles contaminating surfaces “physically and detrimentally altered” the restaurant company’s property, constituting a “physical loss or damage” covered by insurance.
Enter the MTA.
On Dec. 12, the transit agency filed an amicus brief in the case, siding with the Texas-based restaurant giant.
“[The MTA’s] interest in this controversy accordingly could not be more direct,” the agency wrote in its brief. “They have billions of dollars of insurance coverage at stake for the losses they incurred.”
“To the contemporary policyholder, inhabiting a world of microelectronics, additive (3-D) manufacturing and precision medicine, ‘physical loss or damage’ includes detrimental alteration of any physical kind, regardless of whether visible or microscopic and whether temporary or permanent,” the brief states.
Why does this matter?
The pandemic…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply