St. Louis furniture maker files federal lawsuit over storm damage, insurance issues

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ST. LOUIS — A north St. Louis business owner says he's struggling to keep the doors open after storms have repeatedly damaged his building.

Over the last decade, Martin Goebel went from making furniture in his grandparents' garage to a factory in north St. Louis.

“We create furniture from the ground up,” Goebel said. “We often start with raw logs that come down in storm damage.”

However, Goebel said his business can’t run at full capacity since a 2021 storm destroyed much of the roof on this 15,000-square-foot building.

“We have hours and hours that are lost every day that we can’t make furniture just trying to make sure the water doesn’t destroy it further,” Goebel said. “It’s a cumulative effect over the years.”

Goebel & Co. Furniture has a policy with Cincinnati Insurance for more than $1 million, but he says an adjuster offered to cover just 10% of the damage due to ‘wear and tear’.

Goebel said the insurance company required him to make what he believes to be unreasonable upgrades after increasing his premiums by 25%, which is the maximum allowed by law.

"We got a really elevated policy because obviously we work in a hazardous environment, and I want my people to be safe,” Goebel said. “The only reason that you have insurance is for catastrophic damage. We've received that, but we haven't received the support we expected."

"He hired employees who depend on the viability of his business,” said attorney Thomas SanFilippo. “It's just a shame to see something like that happen because of what is comparatively a couple of nickels for a multi-billion-dollar insurance company."

Attorney Thomas SanFilippo is representing Goebel in a federal lawsuit that alleges that Cincinnati Insurance is negotiating in bad faith.

“Had this not happened with the denial of the benefits of coverage who knows what that company could’ve done in this time,” SanFilippo said.

A spokesperson for Cincinnati Insurance declined to comment on this story due to pending litigation.

“I’ve renovated this building,” said Goebel. “As every business owner knows you put your heart and soul into that. You go to sleep thinking about it and you go home covered in it. I’d just like to continue business. We don’t have the ability to indefinitely deal with it. That’s why we have insurance.”