Two Victoria Falls hotel operators have won a combined US$2.47 million insurance payout after the High Court ruled that Zimnat wrongly refused to honour their COVID-19 business interruption claims.
The judgment, handed down on May 5 by Justice Mpokiseng Dube in Bulawayo, came after an application by Africa Albida Tourism and its subsidiary Victoria Falls Safari Lodge Hotel, which claimed US$1.07 million, and Ilala Lodge operator Spencers’ Creek, with a US$1.4 million claim. The ruling is a precedent for pandemic-era insurance disputes in Zimbabwe.
Both businesses held policies covering loss of revenue if a notifiable contagious disease occurred at their premises. When COVID-19 forced them to shut in March 2020, they filed claims. Zimnat turned them down, arguing there was no proof COVID-19 actually occurred at the hotels, only symptoms that could have been other diseases. But the judge accepted evidence from the doctor who diagnosed Zimbabwe’s very first COVID case, in Victoria Falls.
The judge criticised Zimnat’s claims process. The insurer sent the hotels a fire and lightning claim form for a pandemic business interruption claim, a form the judge said was largely irrelevant. The judge said the company had been “caught unawares” by the pandemic, resulting in its handling of the claim.
The judge’s ruled that the pandemic had forced the two businesses to shut down for over three months. “It resulted in losses as claimed. I have no alternative figures to work with than those presented by…the plaintiffs.” Both companies were awarded interest at 5% per annum from the date the summons was served.
