State Farm agrees to multimillion settlement of Katrina lawsuits

[pitohui]

WOW!!!! it's an eleventh hour settlement of the katrina cases

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/news-30/1169590180298890.xml&storylist=

what a turn-around, when originally proposed, i thought they didn't have a hope

trent lott will be one of those to receive money in this settlement, his house was destroyed down to the foundation by storm surge

State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. agreed Tuesday to settle hundreds of lawsuits by policyholders and reopen thousands of other disputed claims for homeowners devastated by Hurricane Katrina, a company spokesman said.

State Farm's agreement with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and lawyers for more than 600 policyholders resolves a civil lawsuit that Hood filed against the company for refusing to cover damage from Katrina's storm surge nearly 17 months ago.

kudos to hood and scruggs, this was an underdog's case if ever there was one

[Mnemosyne]

1. A knr for the Gulf Coast survivors! n/t

:applause:

[BlueIris]

2. Well, it's. About. Goddamn. Time.

And fuck State Farm.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. Writing? meet Wall. About effin TIME!

good for the people In NOLA and elsewhere

[intheflow]

4. This article isn't about NOLA at all.

This only applies to Mississippi.

[pitohui]

5. yes, it deals w. homes utterly destroyed by the storm surge on the gulf coast

the story of these homes on this mississippi gulf coast is that many were swept away, even foundations could not be found in some cases, as in case of my husband's boss or in case of a friend where we went seeking his apartment building and never found it...

there was literally nothing there, no way for people to get the money from homeowner's for the wind damage because there was no one there to see what wind damage had done (undoubtedly a great deal) before the water came and literally wiped these homes off the map as if they had never been

even trent lott says he didn't understand at first when his wife phoned him to tell him that NOTHING was left, as in NOTHING

state farm tried to claim then that ALL damage was done by the storm surge and nothing at all was owed due to wind damage, but there were winds before the water hit so...maybe state farm will now actually have to pay more than they would if they had been more straight forward, but scruggs and hood found evidence of wrong doing, so state farm is settling this to avoid any criminal prosecution

a case for once where crime did not pay

the flooded homes in louisiana are another matter, the majority of them are still (sort of) standing and it's possible with a great deal of hassle and swearing to get homeowner's to see that there were trees, etc. not just water damage -- for instance, a friend's house was destroyed by flood but there was also a tree in it, so he did get many thousands from homeowner's for the tree -- better than nothing since flood insurance only covers up to $250,000 and his home was worth more -- every little bit of help does help -- but he did have to get nasty, at first they only offered $500 for the tree, come on, a big old oak tree, that costs several thousand dollars just to remove the damn thing, much less to repair the damage caused by it

[intheflow]

Here's what was left of a Denny's and a gas station in Biloxi

This shot was taken in December 2005, four months after Katrina, about five miles from where I now live. You ain't kidding when you said nothing exists any more. This insurance bull shit made thousands middle class people impoverished, still forced to pay mortgages on slabs, forced to take additional SBA loans out to rebuild because you can't sell your property for more than pennies on the dollars they owe. The thing is, you can see how tornadoes twisted the treetops, higher than the surge reached. Moreover, many people whose homes were destroyed were advised by their insurance agents when they bought their policies that they didn't live in flood zones so didn't need flood insurance. :grr: State Farm deserved this smack down, as does every other insurance company that hasn't acted in good faith with its policyholders.

[pitohui]

10. you know my insurance company told me the same thing

it's really scary, i eventually wised up, but most people have to assume that their banker who holds the mortgage would advise them correctly and that insurance companies wouldn't be shy to sell needed insurance

i don't understand this world sometimes

agree state farm needs to pay and the sooner the better

[intheflow]

6. This is such good news, and a good precident!

Fucking Dickie Scruggs pitbulled them like he pitbulled big tobacco. He's a member of the good-ol'-boy club, but sometimes even evil does good things.

[pitohui]

7. he found some employees willing to testify to criminal wrong doing

get the attorney general in mississippi interested and suddenly state farm has to wake up or find itself in a world of hurt

civil suits are one thing, criminal prosecutions quite another

[intheflow]

9. I think it was Trent Lott, not the state AG.

He called in his cousin, Dickie Scruggs, who won the lawsuit against big tobacco. It was Dickie that brought in Jim Hood. If it wasn't for a bunch of rich good-ol'-boys losing their coastal mansions, this never ever would have happened. The good thing is that poor homeowners had State Farm policies along with the rich.

[Kurovski]

8. K&R for great news.

[Ethelk2044]

11. Katrina

It is about Time.

[intheflow]

12. kicking for visibiity this morning after the SOTU.

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

13. Woot! But...

Wonder if they are going to now skimp on settlements causing another protracted fight!

[pitohui]

14. no i don't believe they can

my read of it is that they are agreeing to this large settlement because otherwise the company faces criminal prosecution

they have to meet the terms of the agreement or face serious consequences and maybe somebody goes to jail

scruggs found state farm employees willing to testify to the fraud and papers being destroyed, a couple of the women have gone public so we know they exist, this is not some secret sweetheart deal that can just go away after lott's house is fixed -- my read of it anyway

[lonestarnot]

16. I like your read!

[gratuitous]

15. Nice

We just had six people from our teeny tiny congregation come back from a week's work in Lucedale, Mississippi with Brethren Disaster Services. Lucedale isn't exactly on the coast, and they had incredible stories of just how bad the damage was. During their time working on rebuilding houses, they met other folks from other small neighboring towns, who said they'd really like to see more volunteers come to help with the rebuild.

Good to hear that the insurance companies are going to be getting on board and actually fulfilling their contractual obligations.