Appeals court rules Durham restaurants can't collect insurance payments to cover pandemic shutdowns
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has reversed a ruling involving a lawsuit brought by two acclaimed Triangle restaurant owners against its insurance company.
Posted — UpdatedIn the lawsuit, the owners asked the insurance company to honor its contracts by "requiring payment for lost business income, extra expenses, and other business related losses in light of COVID-19 and the related actions by governmental authorities requiring closure of their covered business premises."
Cincinnati Insurance Companies appealed the decision, which was heard in March of this year by a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
"My clients -- Matt Kelly, Giorgios Bakatsias, their partners and restaurants -- have suffered tremendous losses from the Covid-19 pandemic and the government shutdown orders," attorney Gagan Gupta told WRAL on Tuesday. "We are disappointed by today's ruling from the North Carolina Court of Appeals which reverses the lower court's ruling requiring my clients' insurer, The Cincinnati Insurance Company, to help pay for those losses. The lower court's ruling was the correct ruling and we are considering the full range of options to hold Cincinnati to the promises it made in the business interruption insurance policy that it sold to my clients."
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