State Farm Pays $29.8 Million More After Katrina Claims Are Re-Evaluated

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) _ State Farm Insurance Co. has paid $29.8 million more in claims payments since agreeing in April to voluntarily re-evaluate hundreds of Hurricane Katrina cases, Mississippi Insurance

Monday, August 13th 2007, 8:41 pm

By: News On 6


JACKSON, Miss. (AP) _ State Farm Insurance Co. has paid $29.8 million more in claims payments since agreeing in April to voluntarily re-evaluate hundreds of Hurricane Katrina cases, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale said Monday.

There have been 934 requests for re-evaluation of ``foundation only'' claims in coastal Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties to date, in which homes were reduced to just a slab, Dale said in a statement.

Dale said 904 of the claims have been re-evaluated and an additional $23.7 million in settlement offers have been made to those policyholders. The company has paid out $13.9 million to 552 policyholders who have accepted the offers.

Dale said State Farm has also re-evaluated 2,579 of 2,660 non-slab claims and made offers totaling over $23.8 million. Some 1,591 policyholders have accepted those offers and have been paid more than $15.9 million, he said.

Dale's agreement with State Farm, announced in March, called for the Bloomington, Ill., company to pay at least $50 million to potentially 35,000 policyholders in southern Mississippi after their claims are re-evaluated.

Insurers, including State Farm, say their policies cover damage from a hurricane's wind but not its rising water, including storm surge. Hundreds of Gulf Coast policyholders have sued their insurers for refusing to cover damage from wind-driven surge.

``Despite the criticisms, the re-evaluation process continues to work toward helping Hurricane Katrina victims move forward,'' Dale said.

``This is what we were asked to do ... and we are good to our word,'' State Farm spokesman Phil Supple said Monday. ``We are re-evaluating these claim files and making offers in a great number of cases and they are being accepted. We feel this is going to do a lot to move recovery forward on the coast.''
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