A commercial insurance policy doesn’t cover the income a business lost when the governor ordered a shutdown early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ohio Supreme Court said yesterday in a decision consistent with multiple court rulings nationally weighing similar questions, the Associated Press reported. The state’s high court found that the temporary presence of COVID-19 in a community or at a business and the temporary presence of an infected person don’t amount to a direct physical loss that might be covered. “Many other state and federal courts considering insurance claims for business losses due to COVID and related shutdown orders have concluded that the mere loss of use of a premises does not constitute a direct physical loss,” the Ohio court said. A northeastern Ohio audiology company, Neuro-Communication Services Inc., had argued that its “all-risk” policy should cover financial losses from the shutdown. It was closed for several weeks in the spring of 2020 and said it suffered “significant income losses,” according to a court filing that didn’t specify the amount.
