Provenance Hotels — COVID Insurance Coverage Litigation

MWCC represents Provenance Hotels, which owns and operates boutique hotels and restaurants in Washington, Oregon, California, Tennessee, and Louisiana, in insurance-coverage litigation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated governmental orders causing devastating business income damages across the country.

Provenance had purchased property insurance from Affiliated FM, which included a special coverage part property damage caused by “Communicable Disease.” Despite this coverage, AFM denied its responsibility to indemnify Provenance for the lost profits caused by the closure of its hotels following governmental shut-down and stay-home orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Provenance’s lawsuit joins hundreds of others by businesses across the country against insurers that have uniformly denied these claims.  

Provenance filed its complaint in Washington state court on May 29, 2020. AFM removed the action to the United States District Court, Western District of Washington, on July 2, 2020. All of the insurance-coverage cases pending in the Western District of Washington and relating to insurance coverage for COVID-19 lost-profits damages were transferred to Judge Barbara Rothstein on September 17, 2020. After consolidated briefing for all of the cases, Judge Rothstein granted all of the insurers’ dispositive motions in May 2021.

Provenance’s appeal is now pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was submitted on the briefs on March 31, 2023.