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Facing a crippling bill to repair flood damage to their homes, board members of an Orlando condo community sued their contractor this week for inflating his cost estimates — just weeks after that same contractor was arrested in Lee County for alleged overbilling.
The arrest and lawsuit — along with a companion legal filing against former board members for awarding the contract — marked the latest chapter in the horror story gripping residents of the Dockside at Ventura Condominium. Suffering some of the region’s most dramatic flooding from Hurricane Ian, the residents were hit with as much as $1,000 a month in assessments for repairs, leading to an uprising that deposed the condo board.
No sooner did a new board take over than residents became aware of the legal troubles faced by the principal owner of SFR Restoration, who was allegedly hired on a no-bid contract by the previous board and is seeking $27 million in repair bills and interest — a bracing total considering there are 266 units in the condo complex.
“Last year I was paying $483 in regular HOA fees, and then the special assessment for my size unit was $1,001,” said Elizabeth Leuven, 74. “That’s about the regular HOA if you live in Manhattan with a 24-hour concierge.”
The two suits were filed Monday in Orange County Circuit Court. The condo board is seeking relief from a judge for the contract with SFR Restoration.
The condo association also sued three former board members, who were recalled and eventually removed from their posts last year. The lawsuit alleges that Richard Pannullo, Ronaldo Loyo and Niya Loyo breached their fiduciary duty in rewarding the contract, and also that they received improper personal benefits for doing so.
Reached by phone, Pannullo said he had no comment. The Loyos couldn’t be reached.
In addition to a ruling on the validity of the construction contract, the filing against the contractor seeks an injunction on the firm’s $18 million loan to Dockside at Ventura condominiums in east Orlando. In essence, the loan allows the residents to pay off their debt to the contractor over time, and lets work proceed without waiting for an insurance settlement, but it also balloons the total bill to about $27 million including interest.
Dockside filed that lawsuit against several affiliated companies involved in the work and loan: SFR Services LLC, Southern Florida Restoration, LLC, and South Florida Real Estate, LLC. The three companies are based in Stuart and managed by Ricky McGraw, the principal of SFR.
Last month Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced McGraw’s arrest in Lee County, accused of felony charges of grand theft and insurance fraud following an investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services. The arrest was “for his alleged involvement in intentionally inflating and overbilling a roof replacement claim to defraud Tower Hill Insurance Companyout of more than $214,000,” according to a Dec. 5 news release.
McGraw declined to comment on the lawsuit’s allegations this week, and he previously declined comment to the Insurance Journal about his arrest.
Dockside’s lawsuit alleges that SFR’s $27 million estimate “contains millions of dollars of interior work that would ordinarily be the responsibility of individual unit owners (rather than Dockside itself),” and that because it exceeds 5% of the association’s budget, the prior board should have sought multiple bids.
The community also alleges that remediation and reconstruction should have been “priced and completed for less than $10 million” and that the inflated costs were to seek a greater insurance award.
The 266-unit condo neighborhood is off Curry Ford Road just east of Semoran Boulevard in Orlando.
When Hurricane Ian blew through Central Florida in 2022, the retention pond in the middle of the community spilled over, sending floodwaters into first-floor units, and destroying vehicles in the parking lot.
Many residents were rescued by airboats after the storm.
Today most of the first floor units remain under construction, stripped down to the studs and uninhabitable for their owners.
The loan came with monthly assessments ranging from $650 per month to more than $1,000 per month depending on the unit size, stoking fears from the community of seniors and young families that they wouldn’t be able to afford to stay there. Residents began paying the new charge in October.
In the wake of the upheaval, Leuven helped organize a recall effort of the former board, which proved successful as they were ousted by an arbitrator late last year.
With the new board in place for weeks, Leuven said she and her neighbors are tired, and just want to their community back to normal.
“We need to get people back home again,” she said. “We just want to get back to how we were.”
Please call Lee from USAsurance Powered by WeInsure. 954-270-7966 or 833-USAssure at the office. My email is lee@myUSAssurance.com . I am Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance, Mortgage protection, Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, & Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer.
April 11, 2024
Florida authorities have charged a public adjuster and a rental property tenant with fraud after they allegedly falsified documents, filed a false claim and received a check from Scottsdale Insurance Co., a Nationwide surplus lines subsidiary.
The Florida Department of Financial Services said Wednesday that a public adjuster named Soraya Keber, of No Risk Claims Adjusters in Miami, worked with renter Yaneiris Cepeda in 2020 to file a claim over a burst pipe. Keber submitted a public adjusting contract with the property owner’s name and a $47,000 damage estimate, DFS explained.
The owner later said that he had never signed the paperwork and did not initiate the claim.
Scottsdale eventually settled the claim and made a payment of more than $10,000 to Keber, the property owner and the mortgage company, the office said. Keber cashed the check, deducted her percentage and wrote a check to Cepeda for the remaining amount.
DFS did not explain how the alleged fraud was uncovered, or how the scheme advanced to the point of a settlement payment. Investigators began looking into the matter in 2023 after a complaint was received.
DFS online records show that Keber is an all-lines public adjuster, appointed since 2007. She could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday evening at her claims adjuster office phone or email.
If convicted of the charges, the two alleged perpetrators could receive up to 25 years in prison, DFS noted.
Florida authorities have brought fraud charges against public adjuster Soraya Keber, alleging her role in a complex scheme involving falsified documents and a bogus insurance claim for damages supposedly caused by a burst pipe.
Along with the property’s renter, the duo stands accused of orchestrating an elaborate scheme involving the falsification of documents and the submission of a fraudulent insurance claim for damages supposedly caused by a burst pipe. This audacious plot was brought to light by the diligent investigation carried out by the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS).
It has been revealed that Keber, who is employed by No Risk Claims Adjusters in Miami, collaborated with the tenant, Yaneiris Cepeda, back in 2020 to fabricate and submit the claim. The deception included a forged contract utilizing the property owner’s name and an estimated damage cost of $47,000.
The insurance company ultimately settled the claim and issued a payment exceeding $10,000 to Keber. Seizing the opportunity, Keber brazenly cashed the check and went on to write a check to Cepeda for the remaining amount.
Both Keber and Cepeda find themselves facing a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. And unfortunately the implications of these charges are far-reaching, as such fraudulent activities can lead to an increase in insurance premiums, as insurance companies often pass on the cost of fraudulent claims to their customers. Ultimately, honest and law-abiding homeowners bear the burden of the increased costs caused by fraudulent claims.
Please call Lee from USAsurance Powered by WeInsure. 954-270-7966 or 833-USAssure at the office. My email is lee@myUSAssurance.com . I am Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance, Mortgage protection, Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, & Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer.
St. Johns County warns residents of contractor scams following yesterday’s tornado that touched down in St Augustine near Samara Lakes and Trailmark
As the county begins to assess the damage from a tornado that touched down in the vicinity of Samara Lakes and TrailMark subdivisions at approximately 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, officials are warning residents to be wary of contractor scams.
To avoid falling prey to scam artists, the county released the following tips:
Speak with your insurance agent before signing any contracts.
Use caution when hiring someone who approaches you unsolicited.
Be wary of hiring anyone offering a discount to fix repairs with materials “leftover from another job.”
Request multiple estimates.
Verify a contractor’s license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Request references. Contact the Florida Attorney General’s Office to verify if any complaints have been filed against the company or contractor.
Validate current insurance policies and/or bonding information.
Never pay the complete bill in advance and use caution with the amount used for deposits.
Ensure proper permitting prior to all construction/repairs. For questions concerning whether a repair requires a permit, contact the St. Johns County Building Department.
Read the entire contract, including the fine print, before signing.
Every contract must include a “buyer’s right to cancel” within a three-day window.
Make sure that the property is void of any liens from suppliers or subcontractors who were not paid by the contractor.
Insist on releasing all property liens from subcontractors before making final payments.
Do not sign a certificate of completion or pay in full unless you’re completely satisfied.
Click here for more information on St. Johns County Building Department and click here for information from the St. Johns County Emergency Management Department.
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As time passes after hurricanes, new analysis by Stanford University researchers shows perception of personal risk, including the likelihood of injury and home damage, decline.
The findings suggest that programs and policies that aid households to think beyond stocking up on food and medical supplies and invest in longer-term protections will help overcome the risk perception gap and supporting adaptation to rising climate-related threats.
In Texas and Florida, during the five years when hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Michael ripped through the Gulf Coast, many households took steps to prepare for the approaching storms.
According to research published April 9 in PNAS Nexus, people who took these initial steps too often went on to misjudge their vulnerability to impacts from future hurricanes.
“It totally makes sense that the more things you do to protect yourself, sensibly, your personal risk should be going down,” said lead study author Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, assistant professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “In reality, climate change is intensifying hurricanes and future risk of property damage and injury is generally going up in many Gulf Coast communities. All of our findings paint a picture that’s worrisome,” Wong-Parodi said.
Programs and policies encouraging households to invest in longer-term protections are needed to overcome this risk perception gap and help people adapt to rising threats over time, according to Wong-Parodi and co-authors Daniel Relihan of University of California, Irvine, and Dana Rose Garfin of University of California, Los Angeles. This applies not only in hurricane country, they said, but also in areas facing increasing risks from wildfires, droughts and other climate-related phenomena.
The research expands on a 2022 study from Wong-Parodi and Garfin that found people in Florida and Texas who had experienced major hurricanes first-hand tended to perceive greater risks from an impending above-normal hurricane season, and to say they were taking steps to safeguard their households.
The new study, built upon more extensive surveys, looks at how risk perception and actual actions shifted over time based on how recently survey participants had experienced a big storm.
Both studies are part of a growing effort to understand the complex relationship between risk perceptions and behavior as a way to inform programs and policies that can help people adapt to the impacts of climate change and reduce human suffering.
“We need to understand what motivates people and offer solutions that resonate with their realities,” Wong-Parodi said.
The new research is based on analysis of five surveys of 2,774 residents of Texas and Florida between 2017 and 2022.
Residents were asked about their perception of risk from hurricanes, and how they adapted to those risks, whether by putting together an emergency supply kit, installing hurricane shutters, developing and practicing an emergency plan or purchasing flood insurance.
Respondents most commonly reported putting together emergency kits or learning about ways to prepare.
As time passed after hurricanes, the new analysis shows, survey participants’ perception of personal risk, including the likelihood of injury and home damage, declined.
“People tend to be adopting those behaviors that are low-hanging fruit, like getting an emergency supply kit, rather than purchasing flood insurance or getting more durable goods that actually may help them with intensifying events,” said Wong-Parodi, who is also an assistant professor of environmental social sciences.
Intertwined threats
The researchers discovered that people living in Florida, and people without a college degree were more likely to report feeling at high risk of home damage and injury from future hurricanes.
The study authors suggest this may be partly because those with less education may not have as much access to resources and existing power structures, and that they may be more vulnerable to hurricanes and other disasters.
“As hurricanes and other threats fueled by climate change grow more complex, more intertwined, and bigger, more of us are going to be experiencing the dangers of storms, wildfires, and droughts in the future,” said Wong-Parodi.
When looking at why people may misperceive their risks for climate change-related threats, she points out, it’s important to also take into account their other life stressors.
“People are facing compounding threats, such as the pandemic, political instability, and economic constraints, that they are also grappling with in their lives,” she added.
Wong-Parodi underscores the need for collaborative efforts between scientists and health practitioners to develop effective policies and investment programs.
She urges partnerships at the local, state, or federal level to enact long-term solutions, such as programs that offer funding to help people and communities to adapt and prepare for oncoming storms, especially for those groups with fewer resources.
“We need to prepare communities, not just support them during and after events,” she said.
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Three investment firms connected to some of the best-known names on Wall Street have upped the ante in a legal dispute over now-insolvent Lighthouse Property Insurance Corp., based in Tampa.
Fortinbras Enterprises, the managing partner of which is the well-known Ben Black; two Silver Rock funds, once affiliated with famous fund manager Michael Milken; and HT Investments last week filed a new lawsuit against former Lighthouse CEO Patrick White and his father, Lawrence White, alleging that the Whites misled the investment firms about the extent of Lighthouse financial trouble after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana in 2021.
In a separate lawsuit filed in New York, the investors charge that TigerRisk Partners, now part of Howden, the global insurance brokerage, also misled investors in an effort to raise capital shortly before Lighthouse was put into receivership in 2022.
The legal actions come six months after the funds charged that One Florida Bank had insider connections with Lawrence White when it loaned Lighthouse $19 million in 2019. The bank was repaid but the investment funds lost much of their $65 million investment, the suit argues. That suit is still pending in Orange County, Florida, Circuit Court.
The Whites and TigerRisk were not named as defendants in the 2023 lawsuit, but the complaint goes into detail about their alleged deceptive actions and lack of communication. The new complaint against the Whites reiterate the allegations and the Florida complaint asks a judge to place a “constructive trust” over family trusts managed by Patrick White.
Patrick White declined to comment about the latest suit, except to say that the plaintiffs have little to stand on. The funds already were assigned some of the remaining assets of Lighthouse after it was deemed insolvent in 2022. The trusts may be tied up in the receivership, he noted.
“They’ve got nothing, really,” White said.
The defendants have yet to file an answer or motion to dismiss in the latest lawsuits. In the One Florida Bank case, the bank’s attorneys said the suit is misguided, and that the investment fund managers knew all along that the bank would be repaid on its $19 million loan.
“Plaintiffs rolled the dice: They made a risky bet by investing in struggling insurance entities in the wake of a major hurricane,” a defense motion reads.
Fortinbras Enterprises last week took the unusual step of sending out a press release on the latest lawsuits, charging that the Whites worked with TigerRisk to misrepresent and obscure facts about the Lighthouse losses and that the insurer had quietly been placed into conservatorship by Louisiana regulators before the investment deal was inked.
Rabb is Southeast Editor for Insurance Journal. He is a long-time newspaper man in the Deep South; also covered workers’ comp insurance issues for a trade publication for a few years.
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Once Praised, Settlement to Help BP Oil Spill Workers Leaves Most With Nearly Nothing
When a deadly explosion destroyed BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 134 million gallons of crude erupted into the sea over the next three months — and tens of thousands of ordinary people were hired to help clean up environmental devastation from the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
These workers were exposed to crude oil and the chemical dispersant Corexit while picking up tar balls along the shoreline, laying booms from fishing boats to soak up slicks and rescuing oil-covered birds.
Recognizing that some members of cleanup crews had likely become sick, BP agreed to a medical claims settlement two years after the 2010 disaster. Experts hailed it as “an extraordinary achievement” that would compensate workers fairly with little hassle.
But it hasn’t turned out that way.
The effort has fallen far short of expectations, leaving many workers who claimed lasting health effects stranded with little or no payment.
Many workers claiming illnesses from the spill were forced to sue — and they’ve fared worse. All but a handful of roughly 4,800 lawsuits seeking compensation for health problems have been dismissed.
Attorneys familiar with the cases say they are unaware of any that have gone to trial and know of only one that’s been settled. Former boat captain John Maas received $110,000 from BP for his lung ailments in 2022, according to a confidential copy of the settlement.
The repeated failures demonstrate how extremely difficult it is to prove to a court that a specific illness is caused by chemical exposure — even when those chemicals are recognized causes of illness more generally.
An Associated Press investigation that included dozens of interviews with cleanup workers, attorneys and experts, and a review of voluminous court filings revealed:
A single switched word in the settlement prevented thousands of workers from receiving anything over the minimum of $1,300 each. To get more, they had to file individual lawsuits — an option that almost always led to defeat.
Most federal judges hearing those cases required a level of proof connecting chemical exposure to worker illnesses that the lead government epidemiologist studying the spill says is likely impossible to meet.
Big law firms representing dozens or even thousands of workers failed their clients in various ways. After BP accused one firm of manufacturing medical claims, its cases were dismissed in big batches.
Robin Greenwald, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys who negotiated the settlement, said even her firm has not been able to win a single medical case against BP.
“I wanted people to get their day in court and they win or lose at trial,” said Greenwald, a former federal environmental prosecutor. “Let a jury decide. … But they weren’t even given the chance to do that.”
BP declined to comment for this story, citing ongoing litigation 14 years after the spill.
GETTING SICK
After the explosion on April 20, 2010, the spill was spectacular. A camera live-streamed the rupture on cable news, showing the world in real time gushing oil that wouldn’t stop. Oil floated on the Gulf and washed ashore, covering plants, birds and other animals.
To break up oil, roughly 1.8 million gallons of Corexit were dropped from planes and sprayed from boats — far more than previous U.S. oil spills. The manufacturer said it was safer than dish soap.
But lab research on human tissue and animals has revealed Corexit can damage cells that protect the airways and cause scarring that narrows breathing tubes, according to Dr. Veena Antony, a University of Alabama professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine who has studied Corexit’s effect on lung tissue. Over time, she said, the process can make it harder and harder to breathe.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns on April 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
“I genuinely believe that there was harm done and we didn’t realize the harm was being done — and now people are suffering,” said Antony, who testified as an expert witness in one suit against BP. “I would not, at the present time, put my hand even in Corexit without wearing double gloves.”
The current producer of Corexit, ChampionX, said the dispersant was pre-approved by the government for use on oil spills and the manufacturer had no role in deciding when or how to spray it.
Oil itself has long been known to cause illness. One of its toxic components is benzene, which can cause conditions ranging from skin irritation to cancer.
But now researchers, including Dale Sandler at the National Institutes of Health, are finding that spill workers exposed to amounts of oil assumed safe have suffered from dizziness, nausea, lung problems and heart attacks.
“The exposures on average were still pretty low,” said Sandler, an epidemiologist leading the GuLFSTUDY, a major effort to quantify workers’ exposure and track health woes over years. “What surprised us is that we did see a wide range of health effects that were associated with these exposures.”
Sandler said the study is the largest ever of an oil spill and is ongoing. “We’re looking at long-term risks like diabetes, cancer incidence,” she said.
What researchers have found so far is echoed by other studies, including one involving about 3,500 Coast Guard responders. The responders who reported breathing oil fumes were 40% to 50% more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-like symptoms and sinus problems compared to those who said they didn’t breathe fumes. And responders who reported exposure to both oil and Corexit were more than twice as likely to suffer shortness of breath.
A PROMISING SETTLEMENT
Proving to a court that a specific person’s illness was likely caused by their exposure to oil or Corexit can be difficult.
Yet the settlement for medical claims was supposed to make it easier for workers: BP would agree exposure to the spill could cause a host of known health issues — and workers suffering from them could file claims for payment. Initially, attorneys advocating for the settlement said it could help as many as 200,000 possibly injured workers and residents.
The settlement also included $105 million from BP for regional health outreach and free health checkups for exposed workers every three years for 21 years.
But things quickly went awry.
The third-party administrator hired to handle claims, Garretson Resolution Group, initially rejected 78% of roughly 37,000 claims. After many were resubmitted, around 36% still were rejected and claimants received nothing.
Greenwald was especially frustrated her clients’ claims were repeatedly deemed deficient. “We had many a meeting with Garretson’s team to try to shake them loose of some of their narrow reading and obsession with deficiencies,” she said. “We clearly knew the claim form. We negotiated it.”
Matthew Garretson, founder of Garretson Resolution Group, defended his claims handling in an email, saying, “it was the process the parties agreed upon and we had to administer the settlement exactly in the way the parties’ Settlement Agreement mandated.” The company was paid roughly $115 million to $120 million for administering claims and for the outreach program and medical checkup effort as of 2018, he said.
There was a bigger problem.
At the most basic level, workers could submit affidavits attesting to their medical problems and collect $1,300 — and residents could collect $900. About 18,000 received that much.
Those with longer-term illnesses who had proof from medical tests could collect up to $60,700, or more if they had been hospitalized.
But few people had that proof. Forty of about 23,000 with approved claims collected the maximum award — less than 0.2%.
Many people lacked health insurance or easy access to a doctor and the required medical tests — a problem U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier, who approved the settlement, acknowledged in a hearing.
“Speaking for south Louisiana, I know — you’re dealing with people who are probably at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Most of these people, I feel sure, likely have no health insurance,” he said.
Even when people did seek medical attention, doctors untrained in treating chemical exposures often did not link illnesses to a patient’s cleanup work in medical records, according to Greenwald.
THE NATIONS CLIENTS
The Nations Law Firm, based in Houston, represented thousands of workers like Paul Loup IV, who helped clean an oil-contaminated beach in Pascagoula, Mississippi for several months.
Loup, 68, says he now has chronic respiratory issues, making it hard to stand or speak at length. He quit his job as a procurement manager because it involved too much travel.
The firm had wanted to help clients collect more than the settlement’s $1,300 minimum, so it developed a plan to obtain needed medical proof.
It was an assembly line. Out-of-state nurse practitioners who were paid $20 per plaintiff entered medical histories based on information the law firm — not a doctor — provided. Firm-designed forms listed illnesses that paid more under the settlement — and doctors could simply circle them. The forms included a statement linking a patient’s illness to oil spill work — with a line for the doctor to sign. Doctors didn’t keep their own patient records.
While such a process might seem suspect, firm founder Howard Nations said in an interview that he met with the claims administrator Garretson to try to develop an acceptable one.
Garretson rejected the claims — not based on the process, but on a deadline.
THE DEADLINE AND A SWITCHED WORD
The settlement was designed to make it easy to collect money for illnesses that surfaced quickly after crude oil exposure. People with diseases that can show up years later — such as cancer — would be forced to file individual federal lawsuits.
Early settlement drafts defined this second group as people with a disease that “manifests” after April 16, 2012. However, a later draft changed the word “manifests” to “diagnosed.”
In 2014, BP seized on that change to argue no one diagnosed after the deadline could receive an award for a long-term illness through the settlement.
That meant two people could have the same illness, but the one who got a diagnosis before the deadline could file a claim for compensation while the other would need to file a suit instead.
Judge Barbier said that’s not how he was led to believe the settlement he okayed would work.
“It is rather strange … that the court would approve a settlement, a class settlement that really doesn’t settle thousands of claims and requires them to file another lawsuit,” Barbier said at a 2014 hearing. “I mean, it doesn’t sound like much of a settlement.”
BP attorneys said any other interpretation would invite fraud, allowing opportunistic law firms to pay for a medical diagnosis after the deadline to get a settlement claims payout. They also said the word change was requested by the workers’ own attorneys, and Stephen Herman, co-lead counsel for plaintiffs’ attorneys, testified they didn’t recall how it happened.
Despite his doubts, Barbier said he had to follow the settlement language.
His ruling forced thousands of workers out of the relatively easy administrative claims process into federal courts throughout the South.
THE FEDERAL LAWSUITS
The ruling was devastating for Nations clients whose only option was to file federal lawsuits.
After BP attorneys alleged in Mississippi federal court that the firm manufactured medical diagnoses, Nations agreed to dismiss its cases by the dozens. In an interview, Nations did not deny BP’s allegations but said the cases were unwinnable without an adequate expert witness.
Loup, the former beach cleanup worker, said he didn’t know until informed by a reporter last year that his case had been dismissed years earlier. “I call (Nations) every six months or so … and they’ve just said it’s going to take some time,” he said.
Another Nations client was Jeff Herring, the deckhand of Maas, the boat captain believed to be the only person whose case reached a settlement.
When their boat was sprayed with Corexit, Herring started throwing up so badly an ambulance was called to pick him up. Although released from the hospital after a few days, he developed chronic sinus and respiratory problems, according to his lawsuit.
Months later, a doctor at an oil spill medical station referred him to a specialist, and he was hospitalized again, said Herring, now 39. An X-ray found spots on his lungs, and he was supposed to go to New Orleans for further testing but never did.
“That would have took another two weeks being in a hospital over there,” he said. “I couldn’t because I had to get back to work.”
Noting he had no insurance, Herring said he received about $8,000 through the claims process — not enough to even pay hospital bills.
Herring’s suit was thrown out in 2020 along with 235 other Nations cases, but he said he wasn’t told.
Howard Nations said the firm communicated with clients about the status of their cases and although the individual suits were dismissed, he intends to go back to Judge Barbier with new arguments.
EXPERT WITNESSES
Other law firms met a different obstacle:
Workers filing individual lawsuits have to prove they were exposed to enough oil or dispersant to — more likely than not — cause their illness.
The workers’ experts relied on studies, such as those from the National Institutes of Health and the Coast Guard, that found people exposed to oil and Corexit were more likely to develop certain illnesses.
But BP’s experts maintained workers needed to show exactly how much oil and dispersant they had inhaled or ingested and that it was sufficient to cause their sickness.
Greenwald, the attorney who helped craft the settlement, said meeting such a standard is almost impossible: “I mean, ‘How deep did you breathe? Right at the moment you were standing there, was the wind blowing?’” she said. “What mortal human would be able to testify about that?”
Most judges have sided with BP, rejecting workers’ experts as unreliable and effectively ending the cases.
Sandler, the NIH epidemiologist, said its researchers went to great lengths to develop data on exposure like nothing ever been done before. “I’m not sure that they’ll ever meet the standards that the court is imposing on what constitutes evidence,” she said.
It also can be difficult to find an expert witness who knows the science but doesn’t have a conflict of interest through work with the oil industry.
The Falcon Law Firm brought on Jerald Cook, a retired Navy physician trained in occupational and environmental medicine, as an expert on numerous cases. He was rejected again and again by judges as BP poked holes in his professional history and work.
“Your report really doesn’t balance the evidence favoring your conclusions with the evidence that disfavors your conclusions; isn’t that fair?” a BP attorney asked Cook in a deposition.
“Yeah. I think that’s — that’s fair,” Cook replied.
He declined comment, and Falcon did not reply to requests for comment.
Some law firms that took on hundreds of cases have simply buckled under the strain, begging judges for more time so their overloaded experts could produce reports.
LOOKING FORWARD
It’s not completely over.
The Downs Law Group, which has lost hundreds of cases against BP, is appealing in the 5th and the 11th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, hoping they’ll rule federal district judges have misconstrued the level of proof needed for toxic exposure cases. One of those judges said the issue is “very ripe for the Supreme Court to resolve.”
“It has a broader reach than the BP oil spill,” said Jason Clark, a Downs attorney. “If the burden is one that’s too high for any plaintiff to meet, then a lot of people who are exposed … are never going to see justice.”
Meanwhile, Downs is talking to thousands of people interested in suing over illnesses such as cancer that emerged years after the spill, Clark said.
Sandler, the NIH epidemiologist, said the high burden of proof demanded by most judges means “people can’t win.”
“I think at the end of the day, did the oil from the oil spill make people sick? Yes,” Sandler said. “Now, courts may view this from a very different lens, but from a public health standpoint — yes, the oil spill made people sick.”
___
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
Top photo: Workers head to the beach to clean up oil residue in Grand Isle, Louisiana, on May 30, 2010. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Allstate Corporation estimated pretax catastrophe losses of $731 million, with $328 million from the month of March.
Six events contributed to the $343 million total for March — before favorable reserve re-estimates brought down the total. One hail event accounted for 80% of losses in March. The total for the first quarter was nearly $1 billion lower than the total during the same period a year ago, the Northbrook, Illinois-based insurer said.
Allstate said last month that its estimated catastrophe losses were below the $150 million reporting threshold. In January, pretax catastrophe losses were $276 million.
In addition to reporting catastrophe losses, Allstate gives monthly updates on its auto rate increases as it has for the Allstate brand and the National General nonstandard brand on a regular basis since the beginning of 2022. Rate increases for Allstate brand auto insurance resulted in a total brand premium impact of 0.9% for the month of March, or 2.4% year-to-date.
For homeowners, Allstate brand reported that rate increases for Allstate brand resulted in a premium impact of 0.7% for the month of March and 3.4% year-to-date. According to Allstate, implemented rate increases and inflation in insured home replacement costs resulted in a nearly 12% increase in homeowners insurance average gross written premium in March 2024 compared to the prior year.
Please call Lee from USAsurance Powered by WeInsure. 954-270-7966 or 833-USAssure at the office. My email is lee@myUSAssurance.com . I am Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance, Mortgage protection, Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, & Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer.
Former Congressman Charged After Collision with State Trooper in Florida
A former Congressman from North Carolina may soon be facing higher auto insurance premiums after he slammed into the back of a Florida state trooper’s patrol car on Interstate 75 near Naples.
Madison Cawthorn, 28, who represented part of North Carolina and gained national attention for his politics and controversies, rear-ended the parked state trooper in a construction zone earlier this week, causing minor injuries to the officer, according to a statement from the Florida Highway Patrol and multiple news outlets.
Part of the incident was captured on the officer’s patrol car camera and by a passerby on the highway, the Miami Herald and others reported. A driver posted on social media that Cawthorn’s Mercedes appeared to be tailgating, driving erratically and speeding before hitting the patrol car. The impact shattered the trooper’s rear windshield, and the officer appeared to be in some pain afterwards.
Cawthorn, who now lives in southwest Florida, was cited for violating Florida law that requires drivers to move over or slow down for stopped emergency vehicles, the news sites reported.
The former U.S. representative, who served one term in Congress, was partially paralyzed in 2014 in a car accident near Daytona Beach while he was on spring break, according to news reports. Cawthorn settled a personal injury lawsuit filed against his friend who was driving the car at the time, then Cawthorn sued the insurer, Auto-Owners Insurance Co., in 2016.
In 2018, a federal judge dismissed Cawthorn’s claim for bad faith, finding that he did not establish an essential element in the suit —an excess judgment—that is required before a bad faith cause of action can be pursued, court records show. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
A suit in state court in Volusia County, Florida, was dropped in 2022, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.
Photo: Cawthorn in 2022 in North Carolina. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Please call Lee from USAsurance Powered by WeInsure. 954-270-7966 or 833-USAssure at the office. My email is lee@myUSAssurance.com . I am Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance, Mortgage protection, Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, & Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer.
Survey Shows Majority of Florida, California Homeowners Seeing Higher Insurance Costs
Few people in Florida and California will be surprises to hear that the majority of homeowners in those states have been affected by rising property insurance costs.
A survey by Redfin, a U.S. real estate broker, found that just over 70% of Florida homeowners said that they or they area in which they reside have been hit by higher insurance costs or changes in coverage. Some 12% of Florida homeowners surveyed also said they had been dropped by their insurer and the same percentage said that rising premiums and natural disasters are reasons behind their plans to move to another locale.
In California, some 51% of respondents have seen rising premiums or reduced coverage for their homes or others nearby, the Redfin report noted. And 13% of those who plan to relocate cited natural disasters and climate risks as a reason.
The survey numbers were well above the national average, Redfin said.
The report also found that only one third of U.S. homeowners seem to know which natural disasters are covered by their insurance policies. The same level of U.S. real estate agents, 34%, said they had experienced an increase in issues related to home insurance over the past year. In Florida, the percentage was 73%. In California, 64% made the statement.
Please call Lee from USAsurance Powered by WeInsure. 954-270-7966 or 833-USAssure at the office. My email is lee@myUSAssurance.com . I am Your Insurance Consultant about Home Insurance, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Car, Life Insurance, Mortgage protection, Financial Products, Business & Commercial Policies, & Group Products for business owners to give Employees benefits at no cost to the employer.
Almost one year ago, on May 31, 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed sweeping insurance reform legislation into law. At that time, the Florida insurance market was on life support. Homeowners’ insurance companies, stung by massive losses, were leaving the state. Several became insolvent. The state-run “insurer of last resort,” Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (Citizens), became the insurer of first resort. Private insurers raised rates to nosebleed levels to keep up with policyholder claims. Reinsurance protection was getting prohibitively expensive and less available. That was then. The situation now is much better. New capital is entering the market, Citizens is shrinking, and the Florida homeowners’ insurance market turned a modest profit after seven years of red ink.
Reform legislation took direct aim at the cause of Florida insurance market travails—mountains of unmerited litigation brought by billboard lawyers working in cahoots with unscrupulous contractors shaking down insurance companies. The numbers tell the story: At the peak of its crisis Florida was home to 9 percent of the country’s homeowners’ insurance policies and homeowners’ property losses, yet it had 79 percent of the entire country’s homeowner insurance lawsuits.
HB 837 introduced several measures designed to stifle frivolous litigation. The law took aim at how attorneys calculate their fees—fee multipliers—and one-way attorney fees. It trimmed the statute of limitations from four years to two years, and changed pure comparative negligence to modified comparative negligence.
Let’s See the Numbers
Year-end 2023 Florida insurance market financial statistics show signs of improving health:
Expenditure on legal defense costs, expressed as a percent of premium, fellfrom 8.4 percent in 2022 to 3.1 percent in 2023. This is still much higher than 1.2 percent for the overall industry, but a significant drop from the year prior.
The (direct incurred) loss ratio, a measure of insurance underwriting profitability, was 40 percent in 2023, down from 125 percent in 2022 and 56 percent in 2021.
In 2023, the Florida homeowners’ insurance market turned a slight profit. It lost $191 million on underwriting, but the $346 million gained in investment income more than offset the underwriting loss, generating a positive bottom line. The last time the Florida insurance market had an operating profit was 2016.
Several new insurers entered the Florida property insurance market in the past two years. The most recent is Sypher. Other new entrants include Ovation Home Insurance Exchange (affiliated with Florida Peninsula’s holding company), Slide Insurance, Orange Insurance Exchange, Condo Owners Reciprocal Exchange, Tailrow Insurance, Mainsail Insurance Solutions, and Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange. Yet another, Patriot Select P&C (formerly Anchor P&C), is currently fundraising to secure capital commitments. The fact that private investors are even willing to commit capital to the Florida insurance market is a vote of confidence in the changed environment.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reports homeowner insurance lawsuit volumes are coming down.
The number of policies issued by Citizens fell from an all-time high of 1.4 million (Sept. 30, 2023) to 1.17 million (Feb. 29, 2024). Citizens was createdin 2002 to make property insurance available to eligible Florida property owners unable to find insurance coverage in the private market. It was intended to “depopulate”—send policyholders back to private insurers when the market stabilized—because Citizens was supposed to be a stopgap measure. The recent reduction in Citizens’ portfolio shows that depopulation is happening. Slide is the private insurer that has picked up the most of Citizens’ policies. In its most recent financial report, Citizens forecasts a 2024 loss ratio of 37.7 percent, down from 42.8 percent in 2023. Whereas Citizens cannot predict the weather and 2024 storm losses, it can manage its expense ratio, which is at a healthy low level. The 2024 expense ratio is budgeted at 13.9 percent, down from 14.1 percent in 2023.
Encouraging Signs
Prior to passage of Florida tort reform, the tone of Florida insurance market discussions was all gloom and doom. Fast forward to today, rates are stabilizing, new companies with fresh capital are entering the market, Citizens is shrinking, and insurers are reporting a mild profit. At a March 2024 Bermuda Risk Summit panel that included Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky, the tone of the discussion was positive, suggesting the market has finally turned the corner since “recent legislative changes in Florida … are beginning to heal a fractured residential property insurance market…”
Another sign of recovering health in Florida’s broader insurance market is continuing rate reductions for workers’ compensation insurance. For seven years running, workers’ compensation insurance rates have been declining, as a result of improved work safety conditions. Commissioner Yaworsky approved a 15.1 percent statewide rate decrease for 2024, lowering employers’ insurance costs.
The durability of Florida’s improving insurance market will be tested by the response to elevated hurricane activity. With its 20 named storms, the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season was the fourth-most active ever, but only one hurricane made landfall in Florida—Hurricane Idalia. The year’s most catastrophic storms were not Florida-focused, with Hilary hitting California and Otis striking Mexico. The next test of the market’s mettle will be the June 1 reinsurance renewals, just prior to the historically active third quarter. Scientists will be studying sea temperatures and the El Niño effect, but it won’t hurt for Floridians and Florida insurance underwriters to knock on wood or cross fingers for a mild hurricane season.
Jerry Theodorou is a regular contributor to Insurance Journal. He is policy director for finance, insurance and trade at the R Street Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates for free markets.
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