A total of 699 Gulf Coast homeowners filed suit in federal district court last week claiming that State Farm denied many Hurricane Katrina claims without truly investigating whether home damage was caused by water, and therefore exempt from coverage, or wind, which would be covered.
The homeowners' suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleges the insurer relied on a “one size fits all” report by one engineering firm because it concluded that Katrina's storm surge arrived before its wind could do any damage, while rejecting any others with a different conclusion.
A State Farm representative, Phil Supple, said the suit was totally without merit. “State Farm has evaluated every Mississippi claim individually, and we are committed to paying our policyholders what is owed to them under their contracts with us,” he said.
He also noted that the company has already paid $1 billion to Mississippi policyholders for Katrina claims.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
