Lying on an insurance application has consequences – as one Oklahoma hotel discovered after a guest was fatally shot on its premises.
The case, decided by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on February 26, 2026, offers a pointed reminder for commercial lines professionals about what can happen when material facts are omitted or misrepresented at the application stage – and how those omissions can unravel coverage entirely when a claim arises.
The setup was straightforward, if troubling. Shree Aum, LLC, the company behind the Knights Inn hotel in Tulsa, had signed a contract with a security firm, Response Protection LLC, just one month before applying for commercial insurance through Mt. Hawley Insurance Company in December 2019. That contract required all security personnel at the hotel to be armed. When Shree Aum completed the insurance application, which its sole member, Rajesh Patel, reviewed and signed, it included a Hotel/Motel Supplemental Application asking directly whether there were security guards on the property. Shree Aum answered no. A series of follow-up questions – asking whether guards were employees or subcontractors, provided by a private security company, and whether they were armed or unarmed – were left completely blank…