California's Court of Appeal has rejected Metallica's lawsuit against their insurance company over COVID-related losses.
The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2021 against the band's insurer Lloyd's Of London, when Metallica claimed that the company refused to cover losses after their South American tour was cancelled in April 2020.
At the time, Metallica submitted a loss of $3.2 million. Lloyd's Of London responded to the band, stating that "Unfortunately we have to advise that no coverage is afforded for this matter under this Policy," meaning that pandemic-related reasons weren't covered. Lloyd's Of London specifically cited their policy's communicable disease exclusion, which Metallica said is "an unreasonably restrictive interpretation of the policy" and was being called a breach of contract.
Metallica's case was ultimately dismissed in December 2022, though the band argued that the lawsuit should go to trial as a jury could reason that non-COVID-related issues led to the cancellations.
Now Justice Maria Stratton has handed down a decision, dismissing the lawsuit once and for all according to Billboard. Stratton's opinion partially read: "To paraphrase Taylor Swift: 'We were there. We remember it all too well.'
"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."
Stratton continued: "People were in a position to make a more accurate cost-benefit analysis of restrictions versus potential illness. The fact that governments chose to lift restrictions at that point, two years after COVID-19 was first discovered, does not in any way call into question their reasons for imposing travel restrictions early in the pandemic."
Metallica's legal team has not yet commented on the lawsuit being dismissed.
