Louisiana man to receive $2.8M in lawsuit against Allstate
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Allstate Insurance Company must pay a Louisiana man who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina more than $2.8 million in damages and penalties, a federal jury decided Monday in a case that hinged largely on whether it was wind or storm surge that wiped out his house.
The jury found Allstate – which claimed most of the damage was due to storm surge, an event not covered in its policy – did not pay Robert Weiss enough money to cover wind damage to his home. The verdict included a $1.5 million penalty for the company’s failure to pay the claim quickly enough.
Allstate lawyer Judy Barrasso said in closing arguments that Katrina’s winds were not strong enough to do the damage.
The lawyer for the Weiss, whose home was in the Slidell area on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, told the jury in closing arguments that the house was too high above sea level to have been destroyed by Katrina’s storm surge. The eye of Katrina passed just east of Slidell on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005. He also argued that the house was 17 feet above sea level and that engineering data suggested only 14 feet of surge hit the area. “It never reached the bottom of the house,” he said.
Weiss had an Allstate homeowner policy with limits of $343,000 for the dwelling and $240,100 for personal property.
The company, blaming the majority of damage on Katrina’s storm surge, paid $29,483 for structural damage and $14,787 for additional living expenses.
Allstate’s Barrasso said sustained winds at the house did not exceed 100 mph. “There was plenty of evidence to show the winds were not strong enough to topple this house and the storm surge was,” she said.
Jim Neva, a surveyor and engineer who inspected the house for Allstate, initially told Robert Weiss, who is listed as the policy holder, that wind may have destroyed the home before the surge of water washed away its remnants.
He later backed off that conclusion, however, and deferred to engineering consultant Craig Rogers of Rimkus Consulting Group. Rogers, who wrote the final report on the home for Allstate, convinced Neva that storm surge demolished the house.
Rogers said he didn’t personally inspect the property until after he wrote the report. He said he based his conclusions in part on evidence gathered by other Rimkus engineers – a practice he described as common. But Trahant questioned the move.
“Why did Allstate elect to rely on the one engineer who never set foot on the property until long after he stamped his report?” Trahant said in closing arguments.
Michigan car accident victims receive rights restored
1. McCormick decision provides that rights of innocent victims recover compensation for serious injuries caused by negligence and drunk drivers, have been on the specific legal standards adopted by the Michigan legislature, when it passed the current law 15 years ago. In other words, this is passed by the Michigan legislature 1995 no new law, but rather a return to the strict threshold.
(2) The decision of McCormick recognizes that the Kreiner decision, which it annulled, not more than law was made judge which constituted a radical departure from the language specific and general intent of the law No. fault Michigan.
(3) It is expected that actually reduces the number of processes in the circuit court for the reason that under the decision, auto insurance companies were Kreiner force this decision victims
File complaints, so that she could defeat legitimate claims in court by the introduction of draconian legislation of case Kreiner. I hope that this practice under McCormick, such as insurance companies ends now recognize legitimate claims and forced innocent victims in a fair and reasonable way.
(4) That McCormick's decision should drastically reduce judicial proceedings from Michigan of the stable the amount of the appellate court and less contentious court environment, before the decision Kreiner were returned. In this context is the majority opinion in the nine years before Kreiner, there was with handling cases per year less than 10 Court of appeal of the threshold in tort. But in the nine years more than 250 Court of appeal were decisions since Kreiner was decided! By the rejection of the Kreiner standard, the amount of court should litigation drastically reduce, save tax dollars and share of Michigan of appellate judge on other important legal cases.
(5) An argument of the insurance industry, that the decision of McCormick insurance premiums rise is wrong and reject scaremongering circuit. In this regard auto liability insurance premiums
Typically only about 20% are auto insurance premium of a person as a whole. It is estimated that 50-60% of the typical total is auto insurance premium for collision and comprehensive coverages. In addition n of the repressive six years Kreiner era, auto liability insurance Remiums never went, thus about the fact that it little f any connection between the interpretation of the Michigan of tort threshold and the cost of car insurance. See McCormick, the insurance industry is forced to return some of the incredible gains if it in the last six years to accident victims in the car, the premiums should benefit, however, not fatten the bank accounts of auto insurers have paid.
(6) The McCormick decision clarifies the injustice and the injustice that created by the Kreiner decision for people like Mr. McCormick. Mr McCormick permanently a severe fracture to his ankle when his leg on a truck has executed. He needed two operations to repair broken ankle. He was working for 19 months and when he came back, was not able to continue his normal job duties. Medical testimony found that the onset of degenerative arthritis in his ankle, had caused his injury only committed is, in the course of time worse. Victims like Mr. McCormick had never denied compensation during the 37-year history of the strict school in Michigan until the Kreiner decision came six years ago. Then victims such as Mr McCormick denied routinely the right on careless and drunk drivers
Responsibility for violations, that their quality of life significantly affected. It is Kreiner that the Kreiner decision had almost all expert observers, with the exception of those who universally condemned by the car insurance industry due to the unfairness for people like Mr. McCormick.
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