Judge: Some Katrina insurance exclusions unenforceable (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

Thursday, May 25, 2006; Posted: 5:47 p.m. EDT (21:47 GMT)

GULFPORT, Mississippi (AP) -- Provisions in a State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. policy that exclude certain damage from Hurricane Katrina are unenforceable, a federal judge in Mississippi has ruled.
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U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr., in a ruling released Wednesday, said State Farm cannot rely on an "ambiguous" language in a clause that is used to introduce what is excluded from coverage in its policies.
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Senter said he found "the policy is ambiguous and its weather exclusion therefore unenforceable in the context of losses attributable to wind and rain that occur during a hurricane."
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On Thursday, more than 240 Gulf Coast homeowners filed a joint lawsuit against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. for refusing to cover property damage from Hurricane Katrina.

The federal suit, the latest in a string of similar suits that attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has filed against several insurance companies, claims Nationwide routinely denied policyholders' claims without investigating whether Katrina's wind or water was responsible for damage.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/25/katrina.insurance.ap/index.html

[rocktivity]

1. CUE THE VONAGE THEME!

:woohoo:
No wonder Randi Rhodes isn't at Air America radio today! She's says she's had to pay for the hurricane damage to her Florida home out of her pocket, and that the insurance companies are taking the stand that she doesn't qualify for flood coverage because the flood was caused by the hurricane, and she doesn't qualify for hurricane damage because her home was damaged by flooding!

:crazy:
rocknation

[AnOhioan]

2. Those damn activist judges.........

What will they do next? Conspire to bring down the great GWB because he broke a few measly little laws that needed breaking to protect us from the terrorists???


:sarcasm:

[damntexdem]

3. Hurry, W, and sign an executive order ...

that will give these insurance companies a free ride -- over the backs of homeowners already victimized by FEMA incompetence!