Photo Credit: Jonas Rogowski / CC by 3.0
Deep Purple is at the center of a financial sponsor’s insurance coverage lawsuit over the English rock band’s canceled Mexico tour in 2018.
A lawsuit alleges that insurance provider Beazley Insurance Services denied coverage of two Deep Purple show cancelations in 2018 after failing to investigate the claim sufficiently.
Big Draw Entertainment (BDE), the financial backer for the Deep Purple concert tour in Mexico, filed the lawsuit against Beazley and Everest Indemnity Insurance for bad faith and breach of contract. Big Draw accuses the insurer of conducting a sub-par investigation into their claim that was “limited in nature and narrow in scope” — that the inadequacy demonstrated a “predetermined intent” to deny its claim.
“Defendants did not search the policy for grounds for coverage that would protect BDE but rather searched policy and conducted its investigation for the purpose of finding a basis to deny coverage,” alleges Big Draw, stating it obtained an “event cancelation insurance policy” from Beazley that would reimburse it for losses relating to so much as a “potential cancelation, abandonment, disruption, or rescheduling of any of the shows.”
The two shows in question were scheduled for November 21 and 24 of 2018 but were canceled due to “an abrupt loss” of sound and light equipment, according to the claim. Big Draw says the show scheduled for November 21 had a reimbursement limit of more than $500,000, while the show for November 24 had a limit of nearly $800,000.
According to Big Draw’s complaint, Beazley and their proxy, Premier Insurance, who conducted the investigation, failed to interview anyone with relevant information. Big Draw says they didn’t even talk to individuals who “had the most knowledge of the circumstances of the cancelations.”
Additionally, Beazley unreasonably delayed its coverage determination as Big Draw did not receive a coverage denial letter from the insurer until November 2020– two years after BDE submitted the initial claim.