The Calgary Flames organization is bringing a $ 125 million lawsuit against its insurers for “massive losses” suffered by COVID-19 in the last two hockey seasons.
The NHL first halted its operations due to the pandemic on March 12, 2020. Since then, teams in Canadian provinces have been particularly affected by government mandates that prevent fans from joining.
The NHL and 20 other clubs – including the five Canada-based teams not located in Alberta – have filed lawsuits similar to Calgary’s in June 2021. The group is seeking collective reimbursement for more than $ 1 billion in COVID-19 related losses.
This week, the Calgary Flames LP filed its own claim at the Calgary Court of the Queen’s Bench over insurance coverage purchased by a group of six companies. The named defendants are Westport Insurance Corp., Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Co. of Canada, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Aviva Insurance Co. of Canada, Northbridge General Insurance Corp. and Special Program Group Canada Inc., operates as Can-Sure Underwriting.
In their filing, the Flames said these insurance companies concluded that “viruses do not cause physical loss or damage” and therefore they will not reimburse all COVID-19 damages, despite the “significant cost” of purchasing any risks. Politics.
“The all-risk policy has broadly covered ‘all risks of direct physical loss or damage,'” Calgary wrote in the report. The All Risks Policy has promised Calgary Flames LP to compensate for loss of revenue and certain other expenses if it could not use its arenas or other insured properties due to the impact of external physical danger.
“These covered hazards contain known and unknown risks, including toxic substances that render the arenas unusable. COVID-19 and the COVID-19 virus were precisely covered by the hazards and risks. In short, Calgary Flames LP has the all-encompassing. Risk policy buys for the losses it could suffer as a worldwide series of physical disasters such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The flames did not disclose in the documents what the premiums were on their policies.
Calgary claims that the insurance does not include “broad virus or pandemic exclusions”, but that instead “insurers provide coverage with narrower and fundamentally different exclusions”, which still does not cover coverage for the types of losses that the Organization experienced by COVID.
Furthermore, the flames referred to the fans as the “lifeblood” of the organization’s revenues, and government protocols outside their control prevented people from collecting severely limited operations.
“The purpose of this arena is to enable thousands of fans to gather inside to watch events, consume food and drinks, and cheer vocally at sporting or other events, sometimes with multiple events being hosted daily,” he says. the claim.
Calgary also points to the team’s “significant expenditures” that included repairs and preventative measures that were required only to allow the building to reopen once.
A statement of defense responding to the flames’ accusations, which remain unproven, has not yet been filed.
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