Plaintiff Hospital Service District No. 1 of Terrebonne Parish (Terrebonne General Medical Center, or TGMC) filed suit on Wednesday against Hartford Fire Insurance Company over allegations that the defendant wrongfully denied the plaintiff’s insurance claims.
The defendant sold an insurance policy to the plaintiff from April 1, 2019, to April 1, 2020, which included an endorsement that provided coverage for Communicable Disease Contamination. The coverage for communicable disease contamination specifically applies when “a governmental health authority having jurisdiction over the ‘Insured Premises’ has issued an order regarding an outbreak of a specific communicable disease at an ‘Insured Premises.’” The policy covers the clean-up, removal, restoration, and replacement of contaminated Covered Property.
The governmental health authority that has jurisdiction over the plaintiff is the Louisiana Department of Health, the complaint said. On March 18, 2020, the department issued an order requiring the plaintiff to stop all non-emergency medical procedures as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks “at Louisiana hospitals, including Terrebonne General Medical Center [the plaintiff].”
After receiving the order from the Louisiana Department of Health, the plaintiff filed a claim with the defendant for “covered business interruption and contamination remediation losses.” The defendant denied the claim, citing that the order by the Louisiana Department of Health was not made in response to an outbreak at the plaintiff’s facility, and that the order did not require specific cleanup measures. The plaintiff discounts this claim denial reasoning by the defendant as wholly incorrect.
The complaint cites breach of contract and breach of certain provisions of Title 22 due to the defendant’s failure to pay the plaintiff’s insurance claim. The plaintiff is seeking favorable judgment on each count, litigation fees, pre- and post-judgment interest, bad-faith penalties, any other generable and equitable relief to which TGHS may be entitled.
The plaintiff is represented by Flanagan Partners LLP.
