In June 2021 the High Court of Australia held that a clause in a business interruption policy that excluded diseases that were “declared to be quarantinable diseases under the Quarantine Act, 1908 and subsequent amendments” did not include diseases quarantinable under the Biosecurity Act, 2015 which had repealed and replaced the 1908 Act. The insurers argued that a reasonable person would have understood the words “and subsequent amendments” to include a reference to the replacement…

There has been a plethora of Covid-19 policy coverage litigation across the United States.  Absent non-damage extensions under business interruption policies the courts have had to consider whether amongst other things government restrictions on businesses including shutdown orders constituted interruption of business caused by loss to property insured.  That included whether those restrictions on businesses constituted accidental physical loss or accidental physical damage. Many judgments, at least at the preliminary stage of hearing have denied…