Generali US Branch No Travel Insurance Payout for Covid-19 Class Action

Generali US Branch is part of an Italian insurance company and is in the business of providing travel insurance. The complaint for this class action alleges that the company has wrongly refused to provide payouts for trips canceled in relation to Covid-19 and related travel restrictions.

The class for this action is all persons in the US who took out Generali insurance policies that used Master Policy No. TMP100010, who were prevented from taking the trip because of Covid-19 or related government orders, and who incurred out-of-pocket expenses for their intended trip.

In January 2020, plaintiffs Matthew and Kari Nixon planned a six-day vacation for their family in Panama City Beach, Florida. The vacation was supposed to run from March 21 to 27, 2020. The couple also bought travel insurance for the vacation sometime around February 6, 2020. The insurance policy provided benefits for Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption that was due to what the policy called a Covered Event.

One such Covered Event was “being quarantined.” In the policy, “quarantine” was defined as “the isolation of you or your Traveling Companion, for the purposes of preventing the spread of illness, disease or pests.”

Another Covered Event was a situation where “[y]our Accommodations at your destination [are] made inaccessible due to fire, flood, volcano, earthquake, hurricane or other natural disaster.” The policy defined situation of being “inaccessible” as “your Accommodations cannot be reached by your original mode of transportation.”

Covid-19 has been called a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Governor JB Pritzker issued a proclamation on March 9, 2020 declaring all counties in Illinois a disaster area; and on March 13, 2020, the president declared a national emergency for the US.

Thereafter, the president asked all persons to help slow the spread of the disease, by avoiding unnecessary travel, among other things; Governor Pritzker asked citizens of Illinois to stay home except for essential activities and prohibited all non-essential travel. All other states have been under stay-at-home orders as well.

These various orders and measures resulted in a cancellation of the Nixons’ trip. Covid-19 is a national disaster that stopped the family from traveling and rendered their destination inaccessible.

In April 2020, the Nixons made a claim under their travel insurance policy, but two days later, Generali denied their claim, saying that the cancellation of their trip was not due to a Covered Event.

The complaint alleges that Generali has breached its contract with the Nixons.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Insurance
Tags: Covid-19 Related, Denial of Benefits, Insurance, Travel Insurance