Car dealer disputes post-Sandy insurance payouts
More than a year after superstorm Sandy, an Inwood car dealership whose building was damaged and inventory devastated is in court with two insurance companies, which it claims wrongly denied it between $4 million and $5 million in payouts. Five Towns Nissan sued Tower National Insurance Company of Manhattan and a Schaumburg, Ill., company, Zurich American Insurance, in April in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The dealership says in the suit that a "storm surge" that did most of the damage to its buildings should not be considered "flood" damage. At issue specifically is whether a $2,500 or $5,000 deductible per car should have been applied to the Zurich payout for the more than 450 cars destroyed by a storm surge. Five Towns argues in court papers that it should have been $2,500. Zurich applied the higher amount. If the loss is considered flood damage, the deductible is higher, meaning that the dealer gets a smaller insurance payout. Als...