Posted on 05/14/2020 9:18:56 AM PDT by nwrep
Naomi Pomeroy, the award-winning chef and owner of Northeast Portland restaurant Beast, today filed a class action lawsuit demanding her insurer cover business losses related to COVID-19.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, could set a precedent for thousands of businesses across the state—and possibly the country—that were denied insurance coverage for losses incurred when a pandemic shut down dining rooms.
Many businesses, including Beast, had "business interruption" coverage through their insurance policies. But insurers across the nation have told policyholders that pandemic-related losses aren't covered.
Beast, owned by Pomeroy, is now suing its insurance company, Berkley North Pacific Group, in U.S. District Court in Portland, challenging what Pomeroy describes as a "systematic and blanket refusal to provide any coverage for business losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic."
Neither party could immediately be reached for comment.
Pomeroy has been one of Portland's most high-profile chefs for over a decade. She started her career in the late '90s with a supper club run out of her house, but achieved widespread fame when she opened Beast, a 24-seat prix fixe restaurant, in the Concordia neighborhood in 2007.
Pomeroy's locally sourced, French-inspired meals made Beast a fine-dining destination. It was named The Oregonian's Restaurant of the Year in 2008, and Pomeroy went on to win a prestigious James Beard Award in 2014. She and her husband also own the cocktail bar Expatriate and Colibri, a flower shop on Northeast Prescott Street.
Beast closed on March 15, 2020, due to coronavirus concerns, the lawsuit says. The suspended operations resulted in lost business income, which is covered squarely under the restaurant's insurance plan, according to the lawsuit:
"The Policy provides coverage for Lost Business Income, promising that Defendants 'will pay for the actual loss of Business Income you sustain due to the necessary 'suspension' of your 'operations' during the 'period of restoration,'" the complaint says. "The 'suspension' must be caused by direct physical loss of or damage to property at [the insured] premises."
On March 17, the restaurant requested insurance coverage. Within a week, the insurers denied the claim.
The lawsuit was filed as class action—meaning other businesses can join (so far, Beast is the sole plaintiff). But Beast contends that the insurance company's denial wasn't isolated to its business alone, and that the Berkley Insurance Company "engaged in the same misconduct" with other policyholders who "suffered losses related to the Coronavirus pandemic and submitted claims which were categorically denied."
Beast is asking the court for injunctive relief from the insurance company's "unfair and/or deceptive conduct" and wrongful denial of coverage, and for the insurers to follow through with the coverage set forth in their insurance policy.
Sue your government. THEY shut you down and denied you access to the market.
Some other businesses were not shut down.
If those suits are valid, then they’re all going to get very little money because the inurers will go belly-up.
>>Many businesses, including Beast, had “business interruption” coverage through their insurance policies. But insurers across the nation have told policyholders that pandemic-related losses aren’t covered.
In March SXSW said that while they have insurance it doesn’t cover outbreak of disease. And they were making the decision to hold customers’ money for a year telling them that they can have the same passes for next year’s (2021) event.
A policy for disease was available they just said that they didn’t buy it.
Businesses looking to buy cancellation insurance for events around the world will not be able to get cover for the new coronavirus outbreak, industry sources said, as insurers rush to exclude the infectious disease from their policies.
Many businesses do not buy the extra epidemic cover, but large events are usually more likely to have it.
This part of the policy would appear to support the insurance company.
Of course the suit is going to allege they had coverage and are were improperly denied. Wouldn’t have a suit otherwise. But almost all business interruption policies have a specific exclusion for pandemics, or something that would include a pandemic. It’s possible this restaurant’s policy is different, but if so it would be in a very small minority.
And “you” can have a homeowner’s insurance policy but protection from flood is separate...
And isn’t most flood insurance sold by the govt. because most private insurers won’t sell it.
This is exactly why insurance companies have such a bad reputation. They are more than willing to charge high premiums for various policies, but then when something happens that they might need to pay out, they find any and every possible weasel-stomping excuse they can to avoid the payout they promised in the policy.
“Oh, did it happen on a Thursday during a blood moon? No? Then you are not covered. Were you wearing spats and a bandanna? Sorry, that isn’t covered.”
ANY excuse to avoid ANY payout. They get away with it because they are protected by laws written to protect THEM, not the public.
Uh no. The policy clearly doesn't cover this event. It said so in writing when they bought the policy. Abiding by the terms of the policy is not a weasel-stomping excuse.
Sure, people wish insurance would cover their losses. But business interruption policies weren't sold to cover pandemics. If they had been the insurance companies would have calculated different premiums.
When Houston Mayor Bill White cancelled bookings and contracted events at the George R. Brown Convention Center to house people from New Orleans (300 miles and a state away), he DARED any promoters who were losing money to sue him.
This is a lawsuit that should be directed to the government.
If someone didn’t buy an appropriate coverage, that is their undoing.
I hear this from people with million dollar estates on the coast in California and Florida. Didn’t have insurance for mudslides or flooding because “I can’t afford it”. Then you can’t afford that million dollar estate on the coast.
And you don’t have to put money to the insurance company for these things, you can put that money into savings as a “Rainy Day fund” instead.
In March this was a known thing. She isn’t the only business affected and those in March knew that they weren’t covered.
It seems like a minor thing, but if the insurance industry decided, either in whole or in parts, that they would cover businesses who operated outside of draconian edicts of questionable legality so long as they were still working under other rules consistent with their business insurance. Liability right now is a huge reason more places aren’t opening up.
Every property insurance policy written stipulates there must be direct physical damage to the property insured, in order to qualify for a business interruption claim.
Been that way for a couple hundred years.
A pandemic did not cause direct physical damage to the property. No coverage.
The virus didn’t close down your business. The state did.
Only if you are in a designated flood area.
Insurance companies will sell you flood insurance where floods are not likely.
If you are in a Federally designated flood area your insurance company will sell you the Federally backed flood insurance.
I am in a flood area but I never buy the insurance because my house sits on some of the highest ground in the area and I have a 6 foot drainage culvert in in my front yard that directs run off over a 60 foot cliff down to a river.
The chances of my property flooding are slim to none.
Sometimes paying out on a life insurance policy is the cheapest option.
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