Court dismisses suit against insurance companies | news

In front of the Munich district court, three insurance companies have prevailed against complaining customers from the catering industry who demanded payments for the first corona lockdown in spring 2020. The tenth civil chamber has dismissed the complaints in a total of four proceedings, as the court announced on Wednesday. The innkeepers had taken out insurance against business closures with Allianz, Helvetia and the liability insurance company; the proceedings totaled 460,000 euros.

The reason for the dismissal of the lawsuits is that the three companies have included in their respective insurance conditions a list of diseases and pathogens to which the respective policies apply. Since Covid-19 is not found in these listings, there is also no insurance cover according to the judgments.

Assessment of the facts varies

The decisions are not final, nor do they mean legal clarity. Hundreds of similar lawsuits are pending across Germany, and different chambers have come to different assessments – in some cases, as in Munich, even at the same court:

In previous cases, the 12th Munich Civil Chamber had criticized Allianz’s insurance conditions as “non-transparent” because Covid-19 was not mentioned in the contested contracts, but it was also not excluded – unlike in the case of prion diseases such as the BSE cattle epidemic, in which the largest European insurer had explicitly stated that the business closure insurance does not pay. The alliance had turned in view of the impending defeat and reached a settlement with the plaintiff hosts before the verdict was announced.

Legal clarity for a few years

An innkeeper who filed a lawsuit had also recently prevailed against his insurance company before the Düsseldorf Regional Court. As far as is known, however, the insurers have prevailed in the majority of the cases decided so far. According to lawyers, however, legal clarity may not exist for a few years, when the Federal Court of Justice has to deal with the issue as the highest authority.

(dpa / NZ)

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