Kartman, et al. v. State Farm, et al.

PWR has filed a class action lawsuit against State Farm on behalf of all State Farm insureds that had their hail damage claims denied.

On April 14, 2006, many Indiana homes were damaged by a violent hail storm. In the aftermath of the storm, State Farm denied over 7,000 hail damage claims that were submitted pursuant to the State Farm Homeowners' Policy. The class has alleged that State Farm had no reasonable, objective standard to quantify or even identify hail damage. According to the Complaint, determining whether a particular home was damaged by hail was left to the whim of the claims adjustor. Without any reasonable, objective standard, State Farm was able to justify any result it desired (often to the detriment of its own insureds).

Update: On February 6, 2009, Hon. William T. Lawrence of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division, issued an order certifying as a class action the Plaintiffs' claim for injunctive relief. This is the first step in determining whether State Farm is liable for its failure to provide its insureds with new roofs. The Court has determined that this issue must be resolved before any issues of monetary recovery can be decided.

Update: State Farm has attempted to appeal Judge Lawrence's Order granting class certification and has moved to suspend proceedings in Judge Lawrence's court pending the outcome of the attempted appeal.

Update: Judge Lawrence has suspended all proceedings pending the outcome of the attempted appeal.

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