East Fork Pottery filed a lawsuit against its insurance company for failing to provide any financial restitution after the business was closed for almost a month because of Hurricane Helene.
The insurance company – Travelers – did pay the Asheville-based business for damages to its properties. But East Fork said it was not paid the more than $1 million owed in business interruption insurance which covers businesses for revenue lost during natural disasters and other closures.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court Aug. 5, East Fork claims it was denied the business interruption insurance multiple times, despite repeated appeals.
“Essentially, Travelers disclaimed any obligation for East Fork’s BI [business interruption] Losses based on carefully selected, and distorted, Policy language,” the suit stated. “Travelers’ anti-coverage arguments warped the Policy provisions on which Travelers relied, and disregarded Policy provisions establishing coverage.”
After receiving what the business called a “wrongful denial” it appealed the decision in February. After not receiving a response from Travelers, East Fork again appealed in April, May and June.
"We have been trying for months to work with Travelers. We're still open to working with Travelers, but they refuse to respond," said Alex Matisse, East Fork's founder. "We just sort of hit a wall and they forced our hand into doing this."
The lawsuit claims that Travelers is in breach of its contract with East Fork and owes the business $1,125,000 plus interest. The business also claims that Travelers violated multiple state statutes related to unfair and deceptive trade practices.
Travelers did not respond to messages from BPR News requesting comment.
Steven DeGeorge, the lawyer representing East Fork, said the case has many businesses – including some he represents – “waiting and watching” to see if they will pursue legal action against their insurance companies in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“ There's probably a large number of businesses who have claims of this nature who have opted to forego expensive litigation for now and are waiting and watching other cases as they wind their way through the litigation process to see how the North Carolina courts rule on some of these arguments before spending the money to litigate their own cases,” he said.
