Hartford Opposes Comcast Spectacor’s Motion to Relate 3 COVID-19 Insurance Cases

Hartford Fire Insurance opposes Comcast Spectacor’s July 4 motion to reassign its lawsuit against Factory Mutual Insurance to U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson for Eastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia so it can be related to two other COVID-19 insurance cases pending before that judge, said Hartford’s response to the motion Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-02476).

Philadelphia Flyers owner Comcast Spectacor alleges in its June 28 complaint that Factory Mutual refuses to honor the terms of the property insurance policy the team bought to protect against the type of “catastrophic loss” it incurred when its games were canceled or curtailed at the Wells Fargo Center in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2306290001).

Comcast Spectacor asserts the cases -- Philadelphia 76ers v. Hartford Fire (docket 2:22-cv-1333) and Philadelphia Eagles Limited Partnership v. Factory Mutual (docket 2:21-cv-01776) -- are related “because they are COVID-19 insurance coverage cases that involve claims by professional sports teams,” said Hartford, but Hartford “disagrees.” That's because Philadelphia 76ers “involves a different insurer, a different insured, a different insurance policy, different claims, and different facts,” it said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Juan Sanchez for Eastern Pennsylvania previously rejected “a similar request to designate various COVID-19 business interruption cases as ‘related’ under the Local Rule for similar reasons,” said Hartford: “This situation is no different.” The chief judge “held that COVID-19 coverage cases are not related where, as here, they involve different policies issued by different insurers,” it said.

Sanchez's decision “relied on, and is in line with,” two prior decisions the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued “rejecting similar requests to centralize COVID-19 business interruption coverage cases,” said Hartford. “The JPML refused to have an industrywide MDL and it refused to have a Hartford-specific MDL,” it said.

Comcast Spectacor’s second argument is that its case against Factory Mutual is related to Philadelphia 76ers because they both involve sports teams that play at the Wells Fargo Center, but that fact doesn’t make the cases related, said Hartford. Philadelphia 76ers “is a one-count declaratory judgment claim that addresses alleged business interruption coverage” under a Hartford insurance policy, it said. But Comcast Spectacor v. Factory Mutual “is a multicount case” that involves different coverages, different theories and a different insurance policy issued by a different insurer, said Hartford: “That both cases happen to involve professional sports teams does not make them ‘related.’”

The cases also are in “different procedural postures,” said Hartford. Philadelphia 76ers has a fully briefed motion to dismiss pending, while Comcast Spectacor “was just recently filed,” it said.