Judge: Spa Franchises’ Losses Do Not Implicate Communicable Disease Provision

Mealey's (April 14, 2021, 1:43 PM EDT) -- WILMINGTON, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina on April 13 held that franchises of Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa fail to plausibly assert that their insurance policies’ Communicable Disease Provision was implicated by their claimed lost income arising from their business closures prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, finding that the insureds do not assert that COVID-19 was ever present at their insured premises....