This post updates the post here on January 12, 2007 regarding:
Punitive Damages, Katrina and the Insurance Contract: Lessons Revisited and a Tale Told in Pieces or in Parts.
On January 31, 2007 Federal Judge L.T. Senter, Jr. entered an Order reducing the Punitive Damages Assessment in the Broussard case. The Federal Judge reduced the Punitive Damages assessment in that case to 40% of what the Jury assessed, reducing the assessment from $2,500,000.00 to $1,000,000.00. Here is a link to the Order: Norman J. Broussard & Genevieve Broussard v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. (S.D. Miss. Case No. 1.06CV6, Order entered January 31, 2007) . For another report on this same decision, go to the February 1, 2007 post on Insurance Claims And Issues.
The Federal Court's ruling on January 31, 2007 adds to the facts coming in about the bases for this lawsuit, about the Bad Faith allegations in it, and about the reasons behind the Jury's finding of entitlement to Punitive Damages under Mississippi law.
The Homeowner's Policy involved in the Broussard case was "an 'all perils' policy in the case of the dwelling and a 'named peril' policy as to contents, i.e., windstorm."
Second, the initial investigation by the Homeowner's Insurance Company showed clearly that the Policyholders' home "was reduced to a slab by Hurricane Katrina" and that the damage was caused more by flood than by wind, the Federal Judge wrote.
The Insurance Company "did not obtain any expert opinion on this particular loss."
Rather than obtaining any expert opinion, as the Federal Court noted, the Insurance Company instead established a procedure for homes reduced to nothing remaining except the slab, a procedure which it applied in the Broussard case. The subject procedure was to use "the debris line" and declare that in the instance of only a slab remaining, all damage would be presumed to be caused by FLOOD which was NOT a covered loss, thereby leaving it to the Policyholders to bear the burden of proving damages caused by a covered loss such as WIND.
Although not repeated at any length in the January 31, 2007 Order, the Federal Court had PREVIOUSLY RULED in that same case that the burden of proof was INSTEAD on the Insurance Company to prove at Trial in Court that all or part of the damages claimed by the Policyholders were EXCLUDED.
The Homeowner's Insurance Company "relied on its flood exclusion to totally deny the claim."
The Federal Judge held that there was clear and convincing evidence in the Broussard case supporting a finding by the Jury of entitlement to Punitive Damages. There was in other words clear and convincing evidence, the Federal Judge wrote, "that Defendant acted in such a grossly negligent way as to evince willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for the rights of the Plaintiffs."
That ruling affirmed the issue of Mr. and Mrs. Broussards' entitlement to Punitive Damages under the facts of this case. As to the amount of Punitive Damages, to $1,000,000.00, the Mississippi Federal Court reduced them as noted, doing so both under Mississippi State law and under "due process considerations under the United States Constitution."
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