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State Farm Requests Katrina Cases Be Tried in Northern Mississippi
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. announced on Wednesday, October 11 that it will seek a change of venue in the lawsuits it faces in Mississippi related to damages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The insurance company said it believes most residents of southern Mississippi view insurance executives as equal in moral fiber to child molesters.
Hurricane Katrina caused damage in excess of $38 billion across four states as far as a hundred miles inland. State Farm and other insurance companies including Allstate Corp., Nationwide Financial Services Inc., Nationwide Mutual, Zurich Financial Services, and St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc. face some $20 billion in lawsuits across southern Mississippi. The claimants allege the carriers failed to compensate them for insured losses.
State Farm is seeking a change of venue to northern Mississippi and supported its motion with a survey which revealed that 88 percent of all homes in southern Mississippi were damaged in the storm. In the northern part of the state fewer than 12 percent suffered damage.
The same commissioned study showed that 49 percent of residents in southern Mississippi agreed that insurance executives were on a par with child molesters. The study concluded that in any court action in the southern half of the state, insurance companies were all but guaranteed to lose.
If State Farm is successful with its motion, other insurance companies facing lawsuits can hope to accomplish the same kind of relocation.
The chief executive of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Robert Rusbuldt, said he believed State Farm deserves a fair hearing but that he also hopes "the insurance industry will be better prepared for the next disaster."
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