More Virus Insurance Suits Could Follow As Consolidation Fails

A federal panel’s refusal to centralize hundreds of businesses’ lawsuits against their insurers over pandemic-related coverage reflects its deference to varying state insurance laws and desire for speedy resolutions.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation this week rejected some policyholders’ efforts to transfer their business interruption lawsuits to a single venue, saying the facts and parties in those cases vary too greatly for one court to handle them efficiently.

The state-by-state variance in policy interpretations was underscored almost immediately when federal courts in Missouri and Texas issued conflicting decisions to, respectively, deny and grant insurance companies’ motions to dismiss ...