Judge Denies Spectacor Motion to Relate 3 COVID -19 Insurance Cases
U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia denied the motion of Comcast Spectacor to consolidate its case against Factory Mutual Insurance with two earlier-filed lawsuits under a single judge, said Bartle’s signed order Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-02476). Philadelphia…
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Flyers owner Spectacor alleges Factory Mutual refuses to honor the terms of the property insurance policy the team bought to protect against the type of “catastrophic loss” it had when its games were canceled or curtailed at the Wells Fargo Center in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 (see 2306290001). That the plaintiffs in all three cases “are separate Philadelphia professional sports organizations does not make the cases related,” nor does the fact that both the Flyers and the Philadelphia Eagles are suing the same insurer, said Bartle’s memorandum in support of the order. “Suits against insurers for coverage for COVID-19 associated losses are not uncommon in this district,” it said. “The material policy language in issue is often the same or similar,” it said. But the actions “must involve the same transaction or occurrence” for those cases to be related, it said. “The impact of a nationwide pandemic in each case does not constitute a common transaction or occurrence,” it said. “It would distort the random assignment process if all COVID-19 cases by different plaintiffs against insurers for lost profits or even those COVID-19 cases against the same insurer with similar policies are to be assigned to the same judge as related,” it said.