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Owners of hard-luck store sue insurer
By CHASE SQUIRES, Times Staff Writer DADE CITY -- Owners of an appliance store walloped with a double dose of bad luck last year have sued their insurance company. One of the store owners claims in the lawsuit he never saw a policy that supposedly bears his signature. And the suit also says the insurance company owes the owners more than $300,000. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in circuit court, also claims agents Kraig Blancher and Jason Wozniak -- of Minnesota-based Federated Mutual Insurance Co. -- lied during policy reviews and sales pitches to owners of Sonny's Discount Appliances. "Sonny's placed trust and confidence in Wozniak and Blancher to act in Sonny's interest," the lawsuit claims. "Wozniak and Blancher took unfair advantage of Sonny's." Sonny's sustained back-to-back losses late last year. Burglars made off with more than $100,000 worth of items on Nov. 24, then fire ripped through the U.S. 301 store four days later. Black plumes of smoke were visible from downtown Dade City as fire destroyed the building and its contents. The company's lawsuit, filed by Tampa attorney Daniel Molony, says Federated paid $323,000 for the fire damage but never paid for the theft. In addition, the lawsuit claims Federated has failed to pay more than $200,000 it will cost to rebuild. The reason, according to the lawsuit, is that Federated papers claim Sonny's waived some coverages. "In this document, there is a line for business income coverage with a star under the column, "Coverage Declined.' Page 6 of this document contains what purports to be the signature of Dale Maggard, one of the owners of Sonny's," the lawsuit states. "Mr. Maggard, however, has never seen this document." Maggard declined to comment Thursday on how a signature got on the page. Sonny's has been operating from a rented facility in a strip mall across the highway from the original location, and Maggard said someday the company wants to reopen at its old spot. "The community support for us has been fantastic," he said. "We've been at this too long to give up. It's kind of like our home." After the fire, the 13-page lawsuit claims Wozniak promised that if Sonny's bought a workers' compensation policy from Federated, the company would not terminate other policies and would not raise the premium by more than 20 percent. The lawsuit says six weeks later, the company canceled all of Sonny's policies anyway. A Federated spokesman in Minnesota as well as Blancher and Wozniak did not return calls Thursday. A message on Wozniak's voice mail says he has been promoted out of the Tampa office. The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial.
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