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Over144,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, closing beaches and threatening marine and other wildlife. In addition, the most recent oil spill along the California shoreline presents the possibility of dire consequences for coastal commercial fishers as well as a myriad of business that rely upon tourism for their trade and livelihood. Cause and Containment of the California Oil Spill Not only are ocean waters murky as a result of the…

Sunday morning dawned in California with the Dixie Fire becoming the largest single wildfire in the history of the Golden State. As of the start of a new week, the catastrophic Dixie Fire was less than 25 percent contained and had destroyed more than 700 square miles in four California counties: Butte Plumas Tehama Lassen As of midmorning on Sunday, thousands of homes were in the pathway of destruction by the Dixie Fire. The number of threatened homes and other…

Retaining walls at the damaged Piney Point Reservoir are on the brink of complete collapse Easter Sunday afternoon. What is being described as an imminent breach of the retaining walls at the reservoir is apt to cause a 20-foot wall of water cascading into the surrounding area in Manatee County near Tampa Bay. The potential catastrophic flooding is worsened by the reality that Piney Point Reservoir exists to contain toxic wastewater from a shuttered phosphate plant. A breach of retaining…

“Physical Loss” and “Physical Damage” in Business Interruption Insurance Claims As we have discussed in other posts, business interruption insurance protects businesses against losses in situations where a business is physically incapable of opening its doors to its customers. Since many businesses have been either ordered to close, or have had their normal operations severely curtailed, by civil authorities in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, many businesses have filed business interruption claims with their insurers only to have those claims…

Business Interruption Insurance Claims and the Coronavirus Epidemic: Round 3 Louisiana, Pennsylvania Lawmakers Introduce COVID-19 Business Interruption Insurance Bills As we noted in an earlier post, some state legislatures are considering proposed laws that would require insurers to cover business interruption insurance claims brought about by civil government mandatory business closing or restriction orders due to the COVID-19 epidemic. We have since learned that two more states, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, are also considering such legislation. In today’s post, the business…