COVID-19 And Immunity From Liability

Millions of people across the country are waiting to get the COVID-19 vaccine.  For businesses, immunity is sought not against the virus but against liability, and, in some cases, businesses have been successful in invoking COVID-19 as a means to do so.  Recently, the Southern District of New York held that the pandemic immunized a defendant, Phillips Auctioneers LLC, from liability under its contract with the plaintiff, JN Contemporary.  Under the terms of the contract, Phillips agreed to present a painting at an auction scheduled for May 2020 and guaranteed JN that it would receive a minimum of $5 million from the sale.  Phillips' contractual obligations, however, were subject to the contract's force majeure  provision which read as follows: