Commentary: Insurance companies are letting San Diego restaurants down. Here's how to fight back.

Imagine a world without restaurants.

Actually, you don't have to because there's such a thing as insurance. Across our nine restaurants, we pay hundreds and thousands of dollars every year to keep our properties protected when catastrophe strikes. So when a global pandemic paralyzes the globe and forces us to shut down and lay off our employees, we're covered, right? Because we're insured, right?

Wrong.

Puffer Malarkey Collective has officially been closed since March 15. We have 380 employees under our umbrella, and furloughing them without pay was the hardest thing we've ever had to do.

These people are our family, and not being able to provide for them is a tragedy, one that keeps us up at night, one that drives us to find a solution that will help our staff.

To that end, we launched a GoFundMe, and it's helping cover health benefits and providing ongoing grocery delivery to our team. We are forever grateful and indebted to our diners who have stepped up and given out of their own pockets.

We can't say the same about our insurance company.

There are two sections of our insurance contract that can be invoked that relate to claims filed due to the coronavirus: the "civil authority coverage"/"physical authority clause" and the "virus or bacteria" clause.

Allow me to explain. Civil authority coverage relates to government-mandated shutdowns of businesses, while the physical authority clause covers conditions that make it hazardous for staff and patrons to enter the building. The bacteria and virus clause stipulates nonpayment of claims due to food-borne contagions.

In our case, our insurance providers denied us under the civil authority coverage and said there was a lack of "physical damage" to the property. They claim that while, yes, the government suspended business operations, we did not meet the requirements to qualify under the physical authority clause because there was no physical damage to the restaurant and people could still technically enter our venues.

But our argument is this: If there was a gas leak or toxic fumes throughout the property, it seems like this would be covered and constitute "physical damage" — so why not an airborne virus?

What about the federal government? Didn't it pass a $2 trillion dollar stimulus package that will help small business? Yes, it did, but the sad truth is the CARES Act was not built to help independent restaurants.

It will be a hard-fought battle to apply for and win those small business loans, and the provisions that make them forgivable may not be realistically achievable when we reopen.

Furthermore, with the delay that invariably comes with the government loan process, we're looking at months, possibly a year, before we ever see financial relief. And we can't wait that long.

It's time for insurance companies to step up and pay what restaurants are rightfully owed. We need help paying our employees their salaries while operations are suspended. This is what we pay insurance providers for, and this what we expect of them. But we're the little guy, how can we possibly go against the giants in the commercial insurance industry? We must unite and fight them together.

Today, I am calling on all local restaurants to join us in filing lawsuits against the insurance companies. That's right — we're suing them, and if you're an independent restaurant owner, we want you to join. We want to build this into a national movement, one that the insurance industry cannot ignore and is forced to reckon with. We have retained the services of Gomez Trial Attorneys, and we're building a case. Head to info.thegomezfirm.com/coronavirus-insurance/ to ask questions, sign up, recruit others and fight for your business and your employees.

We don't know what the future of dining out in America will look like once this is over, but we don't want to imagine a world where restaurants don't exist at all. I refuse to accept that reality. Let's go to battle, friends. Together, we can save the restaurant industry.

And don't worry about insurance companies. Rest assured, the government will come to their rescue. They are considered "too big to fail," after all.

Malarkey is the co-founder and partner of Puffer Malarkey Collective, which currently operates 10 restaurants across San Diego and Orange Counties: Herb & Wood, Herb & Sea, Animae, Herb & Eatery, Nima Café, Farmer & The Seahorse, Green Acre Campus Point and Green Acre Nautilus, WoodYu, and Herb & Ranch. He lives in Point Loma.

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