Michael Cetta, Inc. v. Admiral Indem. Co.

• Decision Date: 11 December 2020
• Docket Number: 20 Civ. 4612 (JPC)
• Parties: MICHAEL CETTA, INC. d/b/a Sparks Steak House on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. ADMIRAL INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

506 F.Supp.3d 168

MICHAEL CETTA, INC. d/b/a Sparks Steak House on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff,

v.ADMIRAL INDEMNITY COMPANY, Defendant.

20 Civ. 4612 (JPC)

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

Signed December 11, 2020

Christopher Adam Seeger, Stephen A. Weiss, Seeger Weiss LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiff.

Antonia B. Ianniello, John Frederick O'Connor, Jr., Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, Washington, DC, Wystan M. Ackerman, Robinson & Cole LLP, Hartford, CT, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN P. CRONAN, United States District Judge:

Plaintiff Michael Cetta, Inc. d/b/a Sparks Steak House ("Sparks") filed this putative class action alleging that Defendant Admiral Indemnity Company ("Admiral") breached its obligation to provide coverage for losses that resulted from governmental orders to close restaurants due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Before the Court is Admiral's Motion to Dismiss the Complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). For reasons that follow, the Court grants the Motion to Dismiss.

I. Background

The following factual allegations are taken from the Complaint. In the present posture, the Court accepts the Complaint's allegations as true and draws all reasonable inferences in Sparks's favor. See Harris v. Mills , 572 F.3d 66, 71 (2d Cir. 2009). The Court at this stage may also consider statements or documents incorporated into the Complaint by reference, such as coverage provisions in the insurance contract at issue. See Kleinman v. Elan Corp., 706 F.3d 145, 152 (2d Cir. 2013) ; La Vigne v. Costco Wholesale Corp. , 284 F. Supp. 3d 496, 501 (S.D.N.Y. 2018).

A. The Insurance Policy

Sparks Steak House is a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. Complaint, Dkt. 1 ("Compl.") ¶ 14. Sparks purchased an all-risk commercial property insurance policy from Admiral that ran from June 26, 2019 to June 26, 2020. Id. ¶ 16; Defendant Admiral Indemnity Company's Memorandum of Law in Support of Its Motion to Dismiss the Complaint, Dkt. 25 ("Motion to Dismiss"), Exh. A ("Policy"). The Policy insured the restaurant against a wide range of losses. Compl. ¶¶ 33-35. Three of these coverage provisions are at the center of the instant dispute. Id. ¶¶ 36-39.

The first is business income coverage. In relevant part, this provision provides that:

[Admiral] will pay for the actual loss of Business Income [the insured] sustain[s] due to the necessary "suspension" of [the insured's] "operations" during the "period of restoration". The "suspension" must be caused by direct physical loss of or damage to property at premises which are described in the Declarations and for which a Business Income Limit of Insurance is shown in the Declarations. The loss or damage must be caused by or result from a Covered Cause of Loss.

Compl. ¶ 36; Policy at 56. In other words, if Sparks had to shutter its doors because of a reason covered by the Policy, Admiral would pay for its operating expenses as well as the net income that the restaurant would have earned had it continued operating normally. Compl. ¶ 36; Policy at 56. For example, assume that fire is a "covered cause of loss" under the Policy. If a fire destroyed the restaurant, and Sparks was forced to close while the building was being repaired, Admiral would cover Sparks's expenses, like payroll, and lost income until the establishment was up and running again. See Motion to Dismiss at 5.

The second type of coverage at issue here is extra expense coverage. This is a tagalong to the first type of coverage; it only applies if business income coverage applies. Compl. ¶ 38; Policy at 56. The Policy defines "extra expense" as "necessary expenses [the insured] incur[s] during the "period of restoration" that [the insured] would not have incurred if there had been no direct physical loss or damage to property caused by or resulting from a Covered Cause of Loss." Compl. ¶ 38; Policy at 56. This includes expenses to "[a]void or minimize the ‘suspension’ of business and to continue operations at the described premises or at replacement premises or temporary locations, including relocation expenses and costs to equip and operate the replacement location or temporary location" and "[m]inimize the ‘suspension’ of business if [the insured] cannot continue ‘operations.’ " Compl. ¶ 38; Policy at 56. Consider again the hypothetical fire that destroyed Sparks. In response to such a disaster, the eatery may decide to open a temporary location in Lower Manhattan while rebuilding its flagship Midtown restaurant. Extra expense coverage seemingly would require Admiral to fund many of the expenses Sparks incurred setting up the temporary Lower Manhattan location.

Finally, the Policy includes civil authority coverage, a special type of business income and extra expense coverage for certain governmental actions. It states:

When a Covered Cause of Loss causes damage to property other than property at the described premises, [Admiral] will pay for the actual loss of Business Income [the insured] sustain[s] and necessary Extra Expense caused by action of civil authority that prohibits access to the described premises, provided that both of the following apply:

(1) Access to the area immediately surrounding the damaged property is prohibited by civil authority as a result of the damage, and the described premises are within that area but are not more than one mile from the damaged property; and

(2) The action of civil authority is taken in response to dangerous physical conditions resulting from the damage or continuation of the Covered Cause of Loss that caused the damage, or the action is taken to enable a civil authority to have unimpeded access to the damaged property.

Compl. ¶ 39; Policy at 57. This coverage works a bit differently than the first two because it does not protect against property damage to Sparks directly. Instead, it anticipates a situation in which damage to the area surrounding Sparks prevents access to Sparks. For example, now imagine that a fire destroyed a neighboring building but left Sparks unscathed. However, heavy smoke lingered on East 46th Street, which caused the fire department to shut down the entire block for a week until the smoke cleared. With the block closed, the restaurant's employees could not go to work, and customers could not patronize the establishment. An event such as this would seem to trigger civil authority coverage under the language of the Policy.

Besides these coverage provisions, the Policy also enumerates several exclusions, which identify situations that bar coverage in all circumstances. Compl. ¶ 34; Policy at 68-72, 83. Three are relevant to Admiral's Motion to Dismiss. First is the "New York—Exclusion of Loss Due to Virus or Bacteria," which the Court refers to as the virus exclusion. Compl. ¶ 41; Policy at 83. This exclusion provides that Admiral "will not pay for loss or damage caused by or resulting from any virus, bacterium or other microorganism that induces or is capable of inducing physical distress, illness or disease." Compl. ¶ 41; Policy at 83. This exclusion expressly applies to "forms or endorsements that cover business income, extra expense or action of civil authority." Policy at 83. Second, the ordinance or law exclusion bars coverage if the claim stems from "[t]he enforcement of any ordinance or law" that "[r]egulat[es] the construction, use or repair of any property." Id. at 68. Finally, the act or decision exclusion forbids coverage under the Policy for "[a]cts or decisions ... of any person, group, organization or governmental body." Id. at 71.

With this background of the Policy in mind, the Court now turns to the events of 2020 that ultimately led to the current dispute over the limits of the Policy's coverage.

B. The COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 and quickly spread around the world. Compl. ¶¶ 17, 18, 20. By late April 2020, the deadly virus had infected millions of people across the globe and had killed 40,000 Americans. Id. ¶ 20. While scientists have discovered several modes of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, including through symptomatic, presymptomatic, and asymptomatic transmission, data from studies suggest that the virus is primarily transmitted from symptomatic people to other individuals through respiratory droplets and direct contact with infected persons. Id. ¶ 22. Some studies also have found that the virus "can live on contaminated objects or surfaces," thus suggesting that individuals could contract COVID-19 through contact with such surfaces. Id. ¶¶ 25, 26, 28.

On March 11, 2020, the Director of the World Health Organization categorized the COVID-19 outbreak as a "pandemic." Id. ¶ 1. Two days later, President Donald J. Trump declared it a national emergency. Id. ¶ 2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and members of the national Coronavirus Task Force soon issued guidance to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Id. This guidance advised Americans to "adopt far-reaching social distancing measures, such as working from home, avoiding shopping trips and gatherings of more than ten people, and staying away from bars, restaurants, and food courts." Id.

Following from this, many governmental entities around the country ordered what they deemed "non-essential" businesses to "suspend[ ] or severely curtail[ ] business operations" in order to "stop the spread of COVID-19 among the population." Id. ¶¶ 3, 9. The Complaint alleges that "almost all" States issued some form of a "stay-at-home" order and ordered private, "non-essential" businesses to close. Id. ¶¶ 3, 29. According to Sparks, these restrictions have been "catastrophic" for "non-essential businesses," especially restaurants. Id. ¶ 4. As of the filing of the Complaint, "all but one state ha[d] closed restaurants and bars for services other than take-out and delivery." Id. ¶ 30.

New York did so through several executive orders, of which the Court takes judicial notice....