Corboy & Demetrio Files COVID-19 Business Interruption Lawsuit for Chicago Entertainment Enterprise

Corboy & Demetrio has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Lodge Management Corporation (LMC), which operates numerous iconic Chicago taverns and restaurants, against its insurer, Society Insurance, for the denial of LMC’s claim for business income losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed by Corboy & Demetrio Co-founder Thomas A. Demetrio and Partner Daniel S. Kirschner, seeks a declaratory judgment that the losses suffered by LMC were covered under its businessowners insurance policy issued by Society. Among LMC’s notable businesses are The Lodge, The Redhead Piano Bar, the Hangge-Uppe, Pippin’s Tavern, Streeter’s Tavern, Original Mother’s, House of Beers, Coconutz, the River Shannon, and Downtown Dogs.

The lawsuit, filed in Cook Co. Circuit Court on June 1, 2020, alleges the LMC’s businessowners insurance policy is an “all-risk policy” meaning that defendants must provide coverage for all covered causes of loss unless the policy specifically excludes or limits such loss.

According to the lawsuit, the policy, issued by Society to LMC on Feb. 14, 2020, contains no provision that specifically excludes or limits coverage for loss resulting from “virus,” “Act of God,” “force majeure,” “pandemic,” or “mass catastrophe,” and that the suffered cause of loss fits squarely within the plain meaning of the policy language. Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that to the extent there is any lack of clarity or ambiguity within the policy as to whether coverage exists, then as a matter of law that ambiguity must be decided in favor of the insured, LMC, and against the insurer, Society.

The lawsuit further alleges that, “As of February 14, 2020, it was widely reported and well-known within the United States that the Novel Coronavirus had been devastatingly and rapidly spreading throughout Asian and European countries and had taken a substantial foothold within the United States.”

Case info: Lodge Management Corporation v. Society Insurance and Carlson, Mikuzis & Taylor, Inc., #2020CH04391, filed in Cook Co. Circuit Court on June 1, 2020.