Actors' Playhouse Productions could become the lead plaintiff in a multimillion-dollar nationwide class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Operating out of a landmark theater in Coral Gables, the Miracle Theatre, Actors' Playhouse has performed for over 32 years in the South Florida community.

But now it's gearing for another kind of limelight, in a drama set to play out in a South Florida courtroom.

Actors' Playhouse sued SCOR SE, an insurance corporation based in France, and its subsidiary, General Security Indemnity Co. of Arizona.

It alleged the companies took premiums for business interruption insurance but refused to pay a legitimate claim, because the scope of the economic damages were too substantial.

Steve Marks, managing partner at Podhurst Orseck in Miami, is among the attorneys representing the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit, according to the civil docket. Marks said SCOR SE has refused to cover similar losses and expenses incurred by other insureds, not just Actors' Playhouse. He said thousands of other insureds hold policies that are identical in all material respects to Actors Playhouse's insurance policy.

"The insurers are exacerbating horribly difficult economic times," Marks said.

Now, a multi-district litigation panel is preparing to determine on July 30 whether to centralize before one district court all pending cases against the defendants relating to the business interruption policies.

If the cases are centralized, then the court will have to certify the class and ultimately determine if SCOR SE and its subsidiary breached their insurance contracts with the putatative class members.

The complaint alleged that Actors Playhouse purchased business interruption coverage in an all-risk insurance policy. The theater company had a policy period of May 8, 2019 to May 8, 2020.

Beginning in March, Actors' Playhouse was forced to suspend the operation of its theater productions because of the coronavirus.

Read the complaint:

The plaintiff argued that emergency orders brought by Coral Gables declaring a state of emergency forced Actors' Playhouse to close in March and April because it was deemed a non-essential commercial establishment. As of the filing of the class action, Actors' Playhouse is still closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

No attorney had entered an appearance for the defendants as of press time. Repeated calls to both corporations went unanswered.

But based on other cases against insurers for similar claims, the defendants are likely to defend against the claims by citing to exclusions for coverage under the policy.  For example, following the SARS outbreak in 2002 to 2003, which infected around 8,000 and killed nearly 800 people, insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies that added losses arising from bacteria or virus to avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in claims.

Despite this, Marks said the defendants promised to pay for "loss of business income" caused by the "covered cause of loss" in the insurance contract. He claimed that the policy does not contain any exclusion that would deny coverage caused by the coronavirus and related actions by civil authorities in response to the pandemic.

"It's disgraceful," Marks said. "It would be a shame to have this landmark, like so many other businesses, simply not exist because the insurer decided to stall and not make good on its insurance policy."