Churches, temples, and other religious facilities offer a comforting and serene community environment for families and loved ones. These ministries are often places where people experience great moments of joy and sorrow, making them essential pillars in many communities. While these operations offer a great sense of security for worshipers, they are not immune to natural disasters and human-made incidents — making commercial property insurance coverage especially important. Unfortunately for many church property owners, even with commercial property and other necessary policies in place, insurance providers may deny or underpay a damage claim after a covered event. When these frustrating and upsetting instances happen, an insurance lawsuit will often need to be filed.
While some may not consider a church or religious facility to be a business, that is not necessarily true. Many houses of worship have other on-site operations like associated schools and daycare areas, as well as offices and other areas in which community members congregate. When these facilities experience property damage from a fire, flood, or other natural disaster event, it can have a ripple effect on the children, parents, and other congregation members who deserve a safe environment. When a valid insurance claim for a church’s property damage is denied, it only exacerbates the situation.
At Raizner Slania, our attorneys know just how devastating it can be for a church or other religious institution to experience an unexpected loss of property. These situations are made that much more difficult when the owners of these facilities file a commercial property damage claim, only for it to be denied or vastly underpaid. In these cases, legal action is necessary to recover what is rightfully owed under the insurance policy.
Our firm has handled many lawsuits involving denied, delayed, and underpaid insurance claims for churches and other houses of worship. These cases have addressed specific physical areas, including church school buildings and educational facilities, administrative offices, sanctuaries and fellowship halls, stained glass windows, and steeples, among others.
Some of the notable lawsuits our law firm has filed on behalf of church commercial property owners include the following cases: