Legal Press Covers Lawsuit Against Travelers in Case Involving Airbnb

The Los Angeles Daily Journal and Law360 covered an insurance bad faith lawsuit filed by Shernoff Bidart Echeverria LLP. The lawsuit is against Travelers and accuses Travelers Insurance of systemically manipulating homeowner’s policies for anyone who rents out even their guest homes using Airbnb.

The insurance giant uses a “renters” exclusion to deny homeowner’s insurance claims, even if the damage has nothing to do with renting or the insured’s actual home. Such was the case with one woman in Napa Valley who had two properties on her lot, one in which she lived and the other a guest home which she occasionally listed on Airbnb. When a 120-foot-tall tree fell on her house, Travelers used the renter’s exclusion to deny her claim, even though her main house was never placed on the Airbnb website.

The woman filed a lawsuit claiming that Travelers uses the purposefully ambiguous policy language to flat out deny claims to anyone listing on Airbnb without telling the policyholders.

Cooper Johnson in the SBE’s Los Angeles office is quoted in both articles.

For more information, go to www.dailyjournal.com or read the Law360 article here.