EAST ST. LOUIS – Mascoutah dentist Erik Taube alleges that Hartford Financial Services Group aims to deflect claims for lockdown losses to a company with the same officers and no employees.
On Oct. 9, Taube opposed a motion that would dismiss a potential class action against the Hartford group and let it proceed against Twin City Fire.
His lawyer Richard Cornfeld of St. Louis wrote that his policy referred over and over to the entity he did business with as The Hartford.
“Nowhere does the policy say that The Hartford means Twin City, and who would think it does?” Cornfeld wrote.
Taube sued in June, proposing to represent a class of Illinois dentists who carried business income coverage and a class for those who carried extra expense coverage. He claims The Hartford stated it wouldn’t cover the losses because a virus can’t cause physical loss or damage to property.
In opposing dismissal, Cornfeld wrote that the president and secretary who signed the policy turned out to be president and assistant general counsel of the Hartford group.
He also wrote that the issue of whether the Hartford group is a party to policies is being litigated in the Eastern Missouri district.
He asked for discovery before considering the group’s contention.
In the alternative he asked for discovery on whether the group is subject to alter ego liability under Illinois law.
He wrote that Hartford companies have been sued in 198 lockdown cases.
Damages “may be inconceivably huge, more than the subsidiaries can pay themselves,” he wrote.
He called it a subterfuge to promote injustice.
District Judge David Dugan will preside.
Other lawyers representing Taube include Mark Goldenberg, Thomas Rosenfeld and Kevin Green of Goldenberg’s Edwardsville firm.
So do Richard Cornfeld, Daniel Levy, Anthony Bruning, Anthony Bruning Jr., and Ryan Bruning, all of St. Louis.
So does Alfredo Torrijos of Los Angeles.