Award-winning chef Ashley Christensen sues insurance company

Christensen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of her commissary kitchen AUX Kitchen and restaurants – Death & Taxes, Beasley's Chicken and Honey, Poole's Diner, Poole'Side Pies, Fox Liquor Bar and Chuck's Burgers – against the Cincinnati Insurance Company.

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Christensen requests the insurance company "honor valid contracts of insurance requiring payment for lost business income, extra expenses, and other business-related losses in light of COVID-19 and the ensuing government actions requiring closure of their covered business premises."

The lawsuit also seeks damages for breach of contract, noting that the business interruption policies purchased did not exclude viruses or government shutdown orders.

Christensen says that her staff went from 300 people to about 50 in the weeks following COVID-19 shutdowns, according to the lawsuit.

Christensen is represented by Paynter Law, which also represented two other Triangle restaurant owners in their suit last year against Cincinnati Insurance Company.

In May 2020, Matt Kelly, who owns Mateo Bar de Tapas, Mothers & Sons Trattoria, Saint James Seafood and Lucky's Delicatessen, and Giorgios Bakatsias, owner of Vin Rouge, Parizade, Rosewater, Bin 54, City Kitchen, Village Burger and Kipos, Farm Table and Gatehouse Tavern, filed a lawsuit against the Cincinnati Insurance Company.

In that lawsuit, the owners made claims similar to Christensen's.

Acclaimed Triangle restaurant owners win lawsuit over pandemic shutdown