Insurance company convicted of closing bar during pandemic
An insurance company will have to pay 22,500 euros to a catering establishment in Ogíjares for the days that the bar had to close during the strict confinement imposed by the Spanish government to stop the coronavirus pandemic. This has been ruled by a court in Granada after upholding the business owner's claim against the insurer, with whom he had an agreement that included guarantees for the loss of damages.
According to the judgment of the 12th Court of First Instance of Granada, against which an appeal may be lodged, the owner of the restaurant had signed a policy with Generalli Seguros which, among other conditions, included guarantees for loss of profits.
During the trial it was disputed whether or not the insurance cover encompassed a loss of profit resulting from the closure of the premises due to the pandemic situation.
Despite the fact thatthe insurance company argued that the closing of the business was not within the clauses contained in the general or particular conditions of the contract, the judge held that the wording of the disputed clause was "limiting the risk assumed and not delimiting it".
Therefore, he points out that the risk includes the loss of profits as a consequence of any incident whose material damage is insured in the policy, such as any cause of paralysis of the activity, in this case the hotel business.
In this sense, it adds that in one of the articles, for the operating loss guarantee, it refers to losses suffered due to the total or partial paralysis of the activity of the insured business "as a consequence of any incident whose material damage is covered in the policy".
He understands that, if he had not been covered, the insurer should have expressly excluded this risk, as happens in other products of the same company such as life insurance.
In addition, although the insurer argued that the damages were not correctly accredited, as it did not provide an expert opinion that could combat that proposed by the insured, this argument was rejected and the court confirmed a full sentence of payment of the full amount claimed, 22,500 euros.
