NEW YORK RESTAURANT SUES INSURER OVER SANDY LOSSES

Koi SoHo, the upscale Asian-fusion restaurant in Manhattan, has sued its insurer, locally based Nova Casualty, for breach of contract following its denial of business-interruption claims resulting from the power outages in lower Manhattan in the wake of superstorm Sandy. The restaurant, which is located in the Trump SoHo New York Hotel, filed its lawsuit two weeks after the hotel filed a similar action against Affiliated FM Insurance and the Consolidated Edison utility. Both complaints, filed by law firm Mishon De Reya, assert that the near weeklong power failure was caused by an explosion at a nearby ConEd substation and that the insurers wrongly denied claims by exercising the policies’ off-premise flooding exclusion. The restaurant is seeking around $180,000 in damages, including $160,000 in lost earnings and $16,000 for spoiled food.