Insurer MAPFRE alleges the insured GPH and TAIF were able to open their facilities eight (8) days after the Hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017. After that period of time MAPFRE is applying the “Loss Of Market Exclusion”, because MAPFRE says no one was buying cars at that time. Insured alleges they did open their facilities but were not fully operational because of:

1. Severe damages in their buildings;
2. Lack of employees, many were solving personal issues due to the hurricane.
3. No electricity on basically the whole island, partial operation depended on an electric generator.
4. Electricity/Generator:

• Depended on mechanical maintenance – difficult to find mechanics.
• Generator maintenance – No generator parts were available on the island.
• Difficult to find diesel and rates skyrocketed up to $9.00 per gallon if you were lucky to find a supplier.
• Use of generator – had to be used for a limited period of time as business was not fully operational.

• All systems-Phones-Internet-Cellular- were down in some cases for months; people had to go in their cars to different parts of the island to find coverage and to communicate with their families around the island. You could see lines of cars in some areas to find coverage.
• Very difficult to recharge cellular phones, there were not many solar chargers available.
• Banks (needed to approve loans) – communications were down, and it was not possible for banks to review or qualify clients as they would in normal times.
• All communication and electricity towers collapsed and took many months for repairs.
• Lack of diesel and gasoline made it difficult to use messengers, or to make personal deliveries.
• Radio stations and TV stations were down also for a long period of time. Battery radios were difficult to find.

Our allegation is that the business was not fully operable at that time.

Puerto Rico Subscriber