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In the wave of lawsuits by Munich restaurateurs against their insurance companies due to business closures during the Corona shutdown in March and April, the Munich I District Court issued an initial ruling. According to this, Christian Vogler, lessor of the Augustiner-Keller in Arnulfstrasse, receives 1,014,000 euros from his insurance company. The sentence is considered indicative of subsequent proceedings.
The Bavarian state government ordered the complete closure of all catering establishments in mid-March. As a result, numerous innkeepers tried to take advantage of their business closure insurance. With them you can protect yourself from losses if the place is closed by official order. In this case, an individual daily rate is agreed, which is paid for a maximum of 30 days.
Most of the insurances, however, refused to pay: Corona did not appear in the insurance conditions and it was not the competent authority, that is, the health department, who ordered the closure, but the state government; Additionally, insurance only applies in the event of illness occurring at the specific facility, not in the event of a preventative closure throughout the area.
The 12th Civil Chamber of the Regional Court, specialized in insurance law, did not want to follow this argument. The insurance conditions contain a list of registered diseases, but it is incomplete, the Infection Protection Act has been amended several times over the last 20 years and new diseases and pathogens have been added. The insured cannot be expected to compare the list of insurance conditions with that of the Infection Protection Act to find out which diseases are covered by the insurance; such regulation is not transparent.
In previous negotiations, insurance companies had also tried to offset short-term job benefits or state aid from the crown against damages. The ruling also contradicts this: these are not compensatory payments for company closures.
The sentence is not final, but the appeal to the Superior Regional Court is admitted. A total of 86 lawsuits related to business closure insurance have been received in Regional Court I.
