In a precedential ruling, a split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the lower courts in three suits involving restaurants seeking loss of business insurance coverage should not have refused to hear the cases.

The panel’s majority, consisting of Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith and Judge Peter Phipps, held that the New Jersey and Pennsylvania district courts erred in reversing the removal of the cases from state to federal court. Judge Jane Roth dissented from the majority’s decision to vacate and remand the consolidated cases for further proceedings.