Varanese sues Beshear

Sadly the media has misrepresented us. We have filed a statement of clarification request. We in no way are suing the state to recover money. We are suing our insurance company for failing to honor our loss of business claim...

Maybe Admin can change the title of this thread?

Agree on the title change. That said, there is still enough to give me pause, including the naming of state officials as defendants when there isn't any reason for them to be pulled into this, public records are enough. I'd be curious to know what a restaurant owner thinks of this. If what Varanese is doing is correct, then wouldn't every business owner do the same thing?

I won't +1, but pause for now, and hope that the company does a Drew Brees/Heine Bros. and makes some quick clarifications/modifications so that I'm comfortable supporting them.

Well shame on me for relying on the reporting as presented by the Courier Journal. And shame on the Courier Journal for getting it so wrong.

So, I asked some lawyers about this and here's what I found out.

1. You can't sue the state. States have "sovereign immunity" so individuals had to be named in this situation. Since Beshear, Stack and Friedlander shut it down, they get the honor.
2. It's kind of misleading that the guys from the state are listed as defendants. They're not being accused of anything criminal. Rather, their names are dragged into this so they will offer proof that the restaurant was FORCED to close and therefore should collect insurance money. I tuned out on the legal explanation of this but it's my limited understanding they're kind of like hostile witnesses.
3. LOTS of places are using this same tactic. Businesses are getting stiffed by companies who don't want to pay out "business interruption claims" during the pandemic. That's low down, man.

I'm sorry that Varanese isn't getting a payout from his insurance company to which he no doubt has paid a lot of money. That's not cool. However, as I stated in my previous post, I wouldn't be going there anymore anyway. Not my scene. If you were going to stop patronizing Varanese based on this alone, I think that would be a mistake.