The Sun Herald | 01/11/2007 | Jury awards $2.5 million in punitive damages: "GULFPORT - A jury awarded Norman and Genevieve Broussard $2.5 million in punitive damages in their case against State Farm Fire and Casualty on Thursday afternoon.
The Broussards left the court arm-in-arm.
'It's a great day for South Mississippi,' Norman Broussard said.
Today's ruling is considered a sweeping decision for policyholiders along the Coast but State Farm doesn't see it that way.
State Farm has indicated it will not be handling its other claims any differently because of the situation and have another case set for trial shortly.
'It's a different case, it's a different claim. Just like we've said with everything, each case is individual and eachcase is going to be handled on ts own merits,' a State Farm spokesman said.
Biloxi attorney Jack Denton, co-counsel for the Broussards, said they aren't done yet.
'We appreciate y'all's patience,' Denton said in short remarks outside the courthouse. 'We are very pleased with the vedict. Obviously, we have other cases coming up and we don't want to jeopardize those cases.'
Earlier in the day, U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ordered State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. to pay policy limits to a Biloxi policyholder because the company failed to prove how much damage was caused by Hurricane Katrina's storm surge."
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Augh. Have you ever had those moments when reality is shattered? A crazy-making moment? I'm having one of those moments right now.
How... could anyone.. fail to prove how much damage was caused by Hurricane Katrina's storm surge? How? How can people turn a blind eye to what happened here? Is it desperation? Greed? Spite? Vengeance? We all know that the water came. We know what it did. Some of us even saw it first-hand.
It is completely possible that wind took some shingles off the Broussard's home... or bent a gutter... or blew leaves and dirt and sand all over their windows before the water came. Maybe the tar paper came off too.. and some rain water leaked down through the ceilings.. and made a spot on the carpet. It's possible. It is. Mind you, it's not a given. There are people within 800 feet of me who suffered absolutely 0 (zero) wind damage during Hurricane Katrina.
Wind did not remove the house from the face of the earth.
We all know it. We ALL know it deep down... For those of you who weren't actually watching what happened that day -- it doesn't matter. You know... You saw the cars and boats on top of houses... You know they floated there. Even if you weren't here... when you came home.. it was obvious: the tell-tale signs of a giant wave that passed through here. You know it. Own it.
Word games. Mind games.
"But it was damaged by wind before the surge washed it away."
If you have a house fire.. and most of your possessions are charred or ruined.. and that night... a thief breaks in and steals every last scrap of it -- what would you want insurance to pay?
Do they cut you a check to repair the contents because they were burned - and another to replace the contents that need to be repaired.. but you don't have because they were stolen?
If, by some chance, wind did take your entire roof off the house... and a few minutes later... a wave came in and carried your house into the Gulf of Mexico - what is your claim? That you should be compensated for the drapes that got wet upstairs that you don't have anymore because they floated away? Do you need insurance money to repair your roof just in case you're out fishing at Chandeleur and happen to find it again?
We all got hit really hard by this. We all got hit really hard because this thing that Katrina did was unprecedented... And it's hard to be fully insured against the unprecedented. Sitting in my sopping wet house that smelled like fish bait... the realization that hurricane storm surge was the same thing as a 'flood' in the insurance world.. and that we did not have 'flood' insurance was agonizing. It isn't that we were stupid or cheap or brave -- it's just that we never knew we would need it. But isn't that how it works?
I mean... If our real estate agent (or insurance agent or anyone else, for that matter) had pulled out the crystal ball and shown us all the things that would go with this house after we moved in... If he had shown us the water and the heat and the misery... The heartache and the panic... I am pretty sure we would have looked elsewhere. Yep. No deal.
All of us lost something. Every last one of us... Maybe you lost everything. Maybe you lost almost everything. Maybe you lost a friend or a loved one. Maybe you lost your childhood memories... your favorite restaurant.... the place where you were married... Maybe you just lost your faith in the system. But we all lost something.
It doesn't change reality. It doesn't alter the rules either. Truth is truth. Is it okay for the insurance agents to pretend that they never ever even once discouraged a client from purchasing flood insurance? No. Is it okay for the insurance companies to now declare that their agents give out advice about which policies are necessary and which are not -- unless it's flood insurance? That one is entirely up to us, right? No.
Does any of this alter the fact that a 40 foot 'storm surge' wiped out the Gulf Coast? No. It doesn't. It doesn't matter if you were here... or if the insurance company was here... to see it -- it happened.
We all know State Farm will appeal this decision... But what if that appeal is lost? What if insurers are forced to pay for such claims statewide? What happens to all of us then? We're already facing incredibly high insurance premiums. Do people really think that State Farm and others will cut into their profits to pay them off? WE will pay this. It's coming out of our premiums, folks.
If this was forty years ago .. maybe even thirty years ago -- things would be different. Katrina would have hit.. we would have been left high and dry without flood insurance... But our insurance companies would have still been a collective of real human beings. Real human beings don't send $200 checks to people who just lost everything they ever owned. Maybe in that past world... everyone would have seen beyond contracts and profits... and reached deep to do as much as humanly possible to help some people who were really hurting.
Seventeen months later - the pain hasn't eased. It's a deep pain that you just can't put your finger on... it makes it hard to sleep at night.. it makes it hard to wake up in the morning...
And maybe when you're in that kind of pain -- it makes it difficult to tell just how hard the wind was blowing.
2 comments:
Brilliant writing Anita! I totally agree with what you said. We were here and saw what was going on. It won't make for a popular vote but your account is true. I stand with you.
Sadly, I have to agree. I wish it were a world where I could say...hey they lost everything, pay out their policy. But the truth is as you said, if it is paid, it will be paid by the premiums of new policies.
I'm not saying I agree with many of the policy exceptions or the estimates that I've been hearing, but come on people, do you honestly think that your house was flattened by a mysterious tornado that everyone missed seeing because it happened a split second before the storm surge, therefore many thought it was the storm surge...but you knew better?
If I wanted to sue State Farm, I think I would try to go after them for saying that flood insurance was not available to me as I did not live in a flood zone. Your fault I don't have flood insurance...pay out my policy and deduct what I would have paid in premiums if you must. Of course it's easy for me to say that while sitting in Saskatoon on a bed of ice.
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