On the first day of trial in the case of Mondelez International Inc. v. Zurich American Insurance Co., case number 2018-L-011088, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, a jury heard testimony on Thursday, citing a little-known “war-related” policy exclusion which Zurich used as a basis to reject the claim of snack giant Mondelez after it was hit by a malware attack in 2017 that impacted thousands of its servers and computers.
In his opening statements, counsel for Mondelez International Inc. told the jury that Zurich’s insurance policy exclusion for “hostile and warlike action” was improperly invoked to avoid paying more than $100 million in damages caused by the “NotPetya” cyberattack in June 2017, which affected its servers and computers in the U.S., and many in Ukraine.
Counsel for Mondelez also told the jury that Zurich previously offered to pay $10 million dollars as an advance toward adjusting the Mondelez claim, but later reneged and reasserted its rejection, and the $10 million dollar payment was never made.
