Aon taken to court over COVID-19 insurance dispute

IT research and advisory company Gartner has filed a whopping $340 million coverage suit against insurance broker Aon over a COVID-19 insurance-related dispute.

In a Connecticut federal court, Gartner accused Aon of breaching its fiduciary duty and negligent misrepresentation by selling an event cancellation insurance policy that failed to cover all the company’s losses after numerous cancellations early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by Law 360.

Gartner holds industry conferences, events, and smaller meetings for business executives. However, the pandemic forced the company to cancel its events starting in February 2020.                                                                                                                                                              

In the lawsuit, filed on July 12, Gartner claimed it purchased event cancellation coverage, with Aon’s assurances that the policies’ aggregate limits could be doubled if the initial limited was reached – but that was not the case when the pandemic hit the country.

“When [the insurers] refused to honor Gartner’s demand to reinstate the policies’ limits, Gartner suffered enormous financial loss,” the lawsuit said, as reported by Law 360. “If the policies negotiated, approved, and procured by Aon do not provide for reinstatement of the aggregate limits, as Aon represented to Gartner that they would, then Aon is liable to Gartner for its losses.”

Gartner is represented by Andrew M. Zeitlin of Shipman & Goodwin LLP. Meanwhile, Aon is represented by Christopher M. Vossler and Philip T. Newbury Jr. of Howd & Ludorf LLC. Aon has not yet released a statement about the case.