Billboard has reported that a California judge has ruled that Lloyd’s of London does not cover Metallica’s financial losses suffered when they were forced to postpone six shows in 2020 due to COVID-19. Just weeks prior to the scheduled start of their South American tour, travel restrictions were put in place, forcing the band to postpone the dates.

Metallica filed a complaint in June 2020 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The band’s standard “cancellation, abandonment and non-appearance insurance” policy with Lloyd’s Of London was denied by the insurer, which cited the policy’s communicable disease exclusion. The lawsuit called the bands move an “unreasonably restrictive interpretation of the policy” and alleged breach of contract. Metallica argued that Lloyd’s “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.”

On Wednesday, November 30, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly J. Fujie disagreed with the band’s claims, stating: “The travel restrictions which caused the concert cancellations were a direct response to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence … demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic spurred the travel restrictions to South America and restrictions on public gatherings. The COVID-19 pandemic was therefore the efficient proximate cause of the concerts’ cancellations.”

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado