Alterra Mountain Company, the ski resort conglomerate that owns over a dozen popular ski resorts, has filed a lawsuit against Lexington Insurance over COVID-19-related insurance claims. They are seeking coverage for over $200 million in losses when the ski resorts were forced to shut down in March 2020 due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to an article in the Colorado Sun, Lexington Insurance and parent company AIG denied this claim. Alterra is contesting this decision as Lexington paid virus-related claims in 2015 due to a Norwalk Virus outbreak at Canadian Mountain Holidays and a 2018 Norovirus outbreak at Blue Mountain in Ontario.
Alterra alleges that the insurance company simply does not want to pay this claim simply due to the sheer size of the claim.
“The only reason Lexington handled” the COVID-19 business interruption claim differently than the previous two virus claims “was solely on the ground that the current claim is much larger than the prior claims,” reads a breach of contract lawsuit filed this week by Alterra Mountain Co. -Colorado Sun
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. This could open up quite a sizeable can of worms.
Images from: Lexington Insurance Facebook Page, Ikon Pass Facebook Page