The Legal Case for Recovering Lost Income from COVID-19 and Government Shutdown

COVID-19 has thrown our way of living into treacherous and unchartered waters.  With each passing day, the scare of this novel virus is causing our emotionally-charged government officials at every level to react with decisions that effectively strip our ability to work, shop, play and interact normally in order to slow or prevent the spread of this viral outbreak while causing economic mayhem.  The effects of this new-normal can, at a minimum, last weeks, but most likely several months.  However, the challenges presented as a result of this situation could easily affect people’s livelihoods for years.

Restaurants and hotels are undoubtedly stressed to find ways to manage decreased cash flows and stop the bleeding losses to recoup or minimize the damage for their losses of income, assets, and brand value during and in the aftermath of this unforeseen ‘tragedy’.  What follows is a discussion of some but not all of the legal principles that may come into play as we consider a…