Founder Institute Incorporated v. Hartford Fire Insurance Company

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

FOUNDER INSTITUTE Case No. 20-cv-04466-VC

INCORPORATED,

Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING MOTIONS TO

DISMISS

v. Re: Dkt. Nos. 25,

HARTFORD FIRE INSURANCE

COMPANY, et al., Defendants.

Sentinel’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is granted. Assuming—for argument’s sake only—that the claim for loss of business income due to the shelter-in-place orders would otherwise be covered by Founder’s insurance policy, the claim clearly falls within the virus exclusion for the reasons explained by Judge Corley in Franklin EWC, Inc. v. Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., 2020 WL 5642483, at *1-2 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 22, 2020). See also Wilson v. Hartford Casualty Co., 2020 WL 5820800, at *7 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 30, 2020); Diesel Barbershop, LLC v. State Farm Lloyds, 2020 WL 4724305, at *6–7 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 13, 2020). Founder seeks to wriggle out of the exclusion by attaching a different label to its loss. Instead of characterizing it as a loss resulting from the risk of virus exposure at its building, Founder characterizes it as a loss resulting from respiratory droplets on surfaces at its…