Northern Spy Food Co., LLC v. Tower Nat. Ins. Co., Index No. 650461/2014
This litigation involved plaintiff’s property insurance claim for food spoilage and loss of business income as a result of Superstorm Sandy. Plaintiff alleged that its restaurant was unable to operate from October 29, 2012 to November 2, 2012 because of the lack of power, which Tower established was caused by flood damage to the power facility that provided electricity to the Premises. This lack of power also caused certain food-stock on hand to spoil. Tower moved for summary judgment because loss caused by flood is specifically excluded, and the provision of the policy that provided limited coverage for loss of income caused by an off-premises power failure specifically requires that the interruption result from a covered cause of loss to trigger coverage.
Judge Edmead agreed with Tower and granted it summary judgment because the off- premises power outage was not caused by a covered cause of loss as required to trigger coverage.