The National Football League franchise Jacksonville Jaguars are asking a Cook County court to order one of its insurers to pony up money to help it cover millions of dollars it lost from being unable to host full capacity crowds amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions more it spent to make its home stadium safe to host limited crowds.
The Jaguars filed suit on Cook County Circuit Court against Chicago-based Axis Surplus Insurance Company, on March 11.
The complaint takes aim at Axis’ decision to deny the Jaguars’ claim for coverage under a so-called “all-risk” policy the NFL team purchased in March 2019.
Specifically, the Jaguars point to an “Extra Expense” provision in that policy, which the team said should cover its costs “to avoid or minimize the suspension of business due to direct physical loss of or damage to the covered properties.”
According to the complaint, that policy carries a $6 million limit for claims for “business interruption.”
The team claims their policy did not include an exemption for losses caused by communicable disease, an exclusion the Jaguars say Axis has included in other similar insurance policies it has issued.
“If the presence of a virus or communicable disease at a property could not cause physical loss or damage, the exclusion would be unnecessary and illusory,” the Jaguars wrote in their complaint. “Its existence confirms that Axis understood full well that if property was damaged (such as being rendered unusable) due to the presence of a virus at that property, that condition would constitute covered physical damage.
“Because the Jaguars’ all-risk policy with Axis contained no such exclusion, the Jaguars reasonably expected that the ‘all-risk’ Policy they purchased from Axis would cover coronavirus-related losses,” the team wrote.
In this case, the Jaguars say the onset of the COVID pandemic, and the shutdowns and other restrictions ordered by government agencies and the NFL, forced them to reduce capacity at their home stadium, TIAA Bank Field, in Duval County, Florida, to 25% for the 2020-2021 season.
In addition to lost home game ticket sales, the Jaguars asserted they further lost money from playing in front of empty stadiums when on the road. NFL teams get a share of ticket revenue from host teams when playing away games.
Further, the Jaguars claim they spent large sums of money to sanitize and repair damage to their facility caused by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The complaint asserts that virus physically alters surfaces it comes in contact with, to make the surface more hospitable to hosting the spread of the virus in the future. The Jaguars’ complaint says the amount of damage depends on the concentration of the virus that is breathed or coughed out by people infected with COVID.
The team is asking the court to issue an order declaring Axis responsible to cover its losses and costs incurred during the 2020-2021 season, in an amount to be determined by the court.
The Jaguars are represented by attorney Marc E. Rosenthal, of the Proskauer Rose firm, of Chicago.