Insurance Law: $8.5M Verdict Against State Farm Upheld

A Missouri court of appeals recently upheld a verdict worth nearly $8.5 million against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. The court held that State Farm Insurance Company denied a stolen-car insurance claim filed by a Kansas City policyholder. State Farm accused the policyholder of stealing the car, and later ushed to have county prosecutors file criminal charges against the customer and an acquaintance. From reading this decision, it seems pretty clear that the insurance company did not give this claimant the benefit of the doubt. Actually, the record in the case reflects that State Farms went out of its way to ignore evidence that tended to show that the insurance claimant was not guilty. This is an interesting case for insurance lawyers, particularly those handling insurance unfair claims practices or insurance bad faith cases. There is more to the story. The story was reported by Portfolio.com on 1-8-08, and can be read at:
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/local-news/&&&&kansascity/
2008/01/08/appeals-court-upholds-85m-verdict-against-state-farm