COVID-19 Class Action Seeks Travel Insurance Refund

A Texas resident has filed a class action lawsuit against travel insurance company Assicurazioni Generali Group, saying that the company denied her trip refund due to COVID-19 cancellations. This is not the first time that the company’s COVID-19 cancelation policy has come under fire.

When Tralisa Sheridan had to cancel her trip to Florida because of COVID-19, she says that she expected to be fully refunded by her insurer, Assicurazioni Generali Group. However, the reportedly company denied her request for coverage and dodged her request for more information by failing to provide the promised “detailed explanations” for the why her claim was denied. 

She explains that she paid $3,500 through vrbo.com for her Florida trip. Allegedly, her daughter was getting married, so she was amongst a group of families going to attend the wedding on March 21. 

However, she and the other group members were so concerned about COVID-19 that they decided to cancel their trip, she explains. They were supposedly worried about the government’s safety warnings around the outbreak, as well as the potential availability of gas for their drive down to the sunshine state, under the circumstances. Additionally, she notes that the wedding was canceled, because Florida’s Navarre Beach, the location for the wedding, had shut down to help slow the spread of the pandemic.

The travel insurance COVID-19 failure to refund class action lawsuit explains that on March 21, she called Assicurazioni Generali Group and was told to file a claim for benefits online. Allegedly, she submitted the claim online on March 22, and waited until the end of April, when her claim was denied. She says that the company informed her that she would received “detailed explanations” via of why her claim was denied, but asserts that this information was not sent.

Detailed explanations aside, Sheridan asserts that her claim should have been approved for a simple reason. Allegedly, her policy specifically stated that cancellations due to natural disasters would be covered. She goes on to note that another part of the policy promised coverage in the event that a policy holder cannot attend a trip because they are “being hijacked or quarantined.” She stresses that the policy itself describes quarantine as “enforced isolation … for the purpose of preventing the spread of illness, disease, or pests.”

The travel insurance failure to cover class action lawsuit argues that the circumstances around COVID-19 clearly fall into both of these categories — both a natural disaster and a required quarantine. To support this claim, Sheridan points out that COVID-19 has been considered a national disaster. Allegedly, President Trump approved declarations of disaster for Texas and Florida in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and has implemented federal disaster response processes to help the country deal with the pandemic.

Additionally, the Assicurazioni Generali Group class action lawsuit goes on to note that the travel insurance coverage does not specifically define “natural disaster” so the interpretation of the term would be how it is commonly understood by the average person.

The Assicurazioni Generali Group COVID-19 coverage class action lawsuit then states that the policy specifies that the covered natural disaster must be unforeseen — Sheridan stresses that neither she, her travel companions, nor the rest of the country could anticipate the onset of this global pandemic.

Allegedly, Assicurazioni Generali Group has made a regular practice of denying travel insurance claims due to the pandemic. Another customer has previously filed claims to this effect. One such lawsuit was filed in New York federal court last month, by a disgruntled Florida resident. Unfortunately, other insurance companies are allegedly attempting to similarly dodge insurance claims, as events, plane flights, and other elements of travel have shut down throughout the spring and summer. 

Now, Sheridan seeks damages on behalf of herself and all other similarly affected customers, saying that she and others were financially injured by the insurers’ conduct. Allegedly, had she known that the company would not honor the terms of their contract, she would not have purchased travel insurance through them.

Have you been denied refunds for events and services canceled due to COVID-19? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Tralisa Sheridan is represented by Derek Potts and James Ryan Fowler of Potts Law Firm and R. Brent Cooper of Cooper & Scully PC.

The Assicurazioni General Group Travel Insurance COVID-19 Cancellation Class Action Lawsuit is Tralisa Sheridan v. Assicurazioni Generali Group S.p.A., et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-00244, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

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