Mashallah, Inc. v. West Bend Mutual Ins. Co.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-insurance company’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs-insureds’ actions, alleging that defendants wrongfully denied their application for insurance benefits arising out of losses and expenses sustained as result of COVID-19 pandemic and governmental orders issued in response to it. Applicable policies contained exclusion for losses caused by virus, which applied to instant COVID-19-related losses. Also, Dist. Ct. could properly deny plaintiffs alternative claims that defendant acted deceptively and unfairly when it collected full premiums from businesses affected by governmental COVID-19 orders, even though risks justifying those premiums went down when orders scaled back business operations. Dist. Ct. could properly find that no reasonable policyholder could have been deceived about scope of coverage at time of policy renewal, since defendant had already denied plaintiffs’ claims for COVID-19-related coverage. As such, plaintiff could not show that defendant made material omission under Illinois consumer protection statute.