In a state court case that was closely watched as the best chance for dental practice insurance coverage for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) business interruption, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington (its highest court) has ruled against a dental practice and in favor of the insurer, holding that there is no coverage because there was no physical loss to the dental practice property and rejecting other arguments that the Governor of Washington’s order to limit dental practices to only emergency services was separate from COVID-19 as the proximate cause of the business interruption. The case is
Hill and Stout v. Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance and the court opinion is attached here:
Washington Supreme Court Opinion in Dental COVID-19 Insurance Coverage Case. Federal courts have routinely rejected these claims, but it was hoped state courts would be more favorable and this was considered the major state court case on the issue. Unfortunately, it does not bode well for other pending state court cases on the issue.