Judge Tosses Metallica’s Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Appeal Over COVID Canceled Shows
More than a year after losing their initial lawsuit regarding COVID-19 related tour losses, Metallica‘s taken yet another “L” in the courts as their appeal was tossed out this past Monday by a California judge.
According to a report by Billboard, Metallica was seeking to get paid more than $3 million in lost concert revenues they argued should have been covered by their insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London. The losses were the result of six concerts that were canceled in South America right around the time travel restrictions came down in an effort to slow the virus’ spread.
Originally filed back in June 2020 with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Metallica’s original complaint stated that they were denied coverage under their standard “Cancelation, Abandonment and Non-appearance Insurance” policy.
The band’s legal stance at the time was that the company “cannot conclusively say that the Pandemic is the efficient proximate cause of the cancellations because there are other adequately alleged causes that are covered under the Policy,” specifically stating that the “travel restriction, the duty to mitigate damages, the need to ‘flatten the curve’ and stay-at-home orders all cause the Shows’ cancellations.”
Through that lawsuit, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujle ruled that the pandemic was directly to blame for the show cancellations and as a result, the policy didn’t cover such an event, citing an exclusion in Lloyd’s of London’s terms and conditions that excludes losses that come from any “communicable diseases.”
In their appeal, Metallica’s lawyers argued that a jury might have eventually found another reason for those concert cancellations, with attorneys pointing to venues reopening during 2022, “despite the ongoing presence of COVID.”
This past Monday, however, Justice Maria Stratton agreed with that initial ruling opting to throw the entire case out as a result. In her decision, she even went so far as to quote another major music star — Taylor Swift.
“To paraphrase Taylor Swift: ‘We were there. We remember it all too well,’” the justice wrote. “There was no vaccine against Covid-19 in March 2020 and no drugs to treat it. Ventilators were in short supply. N-95 masks were all but non-existent. Patients were being treated in tents in hospital parking lots. The mortality rate of Covid-19 was unknown, but to give just one example of the potential fatality rate, by late March, 2020, New York City was using refrigerated trucks as temporary morgues. People were terrified.”
This isn’t the only case of its kind to hit the courts following the COVID pandemic, but Metallica’s dismissal is far from extraordinary. In fact, plenty of cases filed by various artists, venues, and entities have been similarly thrown out or ruled in favor of the insurers, since most policies have exceptions for disease-related events.
