Oaklandish, the popular local apparel brand, is joining a growing list of small businesses suing their insurers over unpaid claims for losses sustained during state-mandated coronavirus closures.
The Oakland-based company filed a class-action suit Monday against Sentinel Insurance Company in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. According to the lawsuit, Sentinel’s failure to pay “leaves Oaklandish in financial straits — precisely the situation it sought to avoid when it obtained coverage for business interruptions.”
Oaklandish’s CEO and creative director, Angela Tsay, said revenue is down more than 75% after the company was forced to shut down retail operations in mid-March and lay off or furlough most of its roughly 30 employees. Its two Oakland retail operations have since reopened, but business is slow.