Federal Panel Rejects Mass Consolidation of Virus Coverage Cases (1)

Hundreds of businesses suing their insurers for pandemic-related business interruption coverage will fight on individually for now after a federal judicial panel refused to centralize their cases.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, in an order issued Wednesday, sided with insurance companies and some policyholders that argued against funneling the high-profile lawsuits into a single venue. Rejecting industry-wide consolidation of these cases —pending in federal courts across the country— is the right call, as a lack of common elements could complicate discovery and slow down proceedings, the seven-judge panel said.

But the JPML left open the possibility of insurer-specific ...