Jury found State Farm knowingly violated the Texas Insurance Code

Euless, Texas is a small town tucked between Fort Worth and Dallas. As part of Tarrant County, Euless has had its share of severe weather events. Chad T. Wilson Law Firm client Aaron P. endured a windstorm in the spring of 2018.  Typical of many property owners who sustain storm damage, he remembered the storm but didn’t notice water coming into his home until heavy rains doused the area a few months later.

Frantic at the sight of the water intrusion, Aaron called his State Farm agent to report the loss.  His agent’s initial response was to tell Aaron he had no claim – no attempt to send anyone out to inspect.  The client went to Home Depot, bought a tarp, and covered one of the roof areas he believed water was coming in.  He called his State Farm agent again and insisted his home needed to be looked at.  This time, the agent’s rep assured him “not to worry,” and they’d have an inspector out in a week to inspect…  all the while water was dripping from his ceiling in several different locations.

According to our client, State Farm’s adjuster came in and immediately responded with weird explanations of what the water damage was that our client was pointing out.  Our client knew from the get-go that this State Farm adjuster was not there to help him.  After a myriad of false explanations of the water spots, the adjuster spent a few minutes on the roof then left without saying a word.  Our client received a letter from State Farm a few days later that stated his damages were $0.  The letter also stated that State Farm found other damages to the client’s home, like vermin damage, insect damage, bird damage, latent defect damage et al., none of which was noted in State Farm’s claim file, nor did it exist at the property.

Our client cried foul to State Farm, and State Farm sent two different adjusters to a second inspection.  These two found windstorm damage but kept the amount of damage to $550 and below the deductible.  Thereafter, our client came to us for help.  State Farm sent a third adjuster before a lawsuit was filed. Ultimately, State Farm or its attorneys redacted all traces of this adjuster’s findings in the file provided to us without a justification for those omissions.

State Farm would eventually assign a litigation expert to inspect the 60-year-old home. This litigation ‘expert’ now cited a litany of non-covered damage, citing soot, candles, defective gas appliances, rodents, termites, foundation issues, “reflections off the carpet,” wear, tear, “weather events,” roof nail pops, mistakes on the part of the adjusters, and even soda on the ceiling.  State Farm’s litigation experts were particularly disingenuous about their findings.

After a contentious three-year legal battle, trial attorneys Chad T. Wilson and Amanda Fulton faced State Farm’s legal team in a Tarrant County courtroom. Through fact and expert witness testimony, methodical direct examination, and oftentimes eviscerating cross-examination, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Fulton relayed Aaron’s story and his mistreatment by his longtime insurer to the jury. Ironically, Aaron chose State Farm as his insurer because his family had been with State Farm for decades. When it came time to buy his first home in 2002, the decision was easy for him, and he went with State Farm. Little did he know how worthless State Farm’s promise to be there when he needed it most really was.

After two and a half days, the jury was sent to deliberate at 2:15 PM on September 17, 2021.  They returned two hours and ten minutes later with a unanimous verdict in Plaintiff’s favor citing State Farm was liable on all counts and providing damages on each of those counts.  The jury awarded over $24,000 in property damages that State Farm failed to pay.  The jury also hit State Farm with various punitive damages for violations of the Texas Insurance Code and unconscionable acts.  In addition, the jury found that State Farm knowingly conducted these bad acts and knowingly violated the insurance code.  The jurors ended up awarding Aaron more than seven times the estimated amount required to repair his home.

After the trial concluded, jurors stated they were disappointed with how State Farm handled Aaron’s claim, how State Farm ‘covered up’ the first adjuster’s haphazard inspection, and were deeply troubled that it took three years and a trial for State Farm to admit they made a mistake; it obvious to the jury that State Farm’s admission was only for damage control, there was no remorse.  This jury was made up of Tarrant County citizens, a jurisdiction typically known as a tough venue for Plaintiffs.  Not only did this jury see Defendant State Farm’s actions were wrong, they returned a unanimous verdict that left no doubt how wrong State Farm was in this case.

If your homeowner’s insurance claim has been denied, delayed or, underpaid, call us. We have represented thousands of homeowners against insurance companies, big and small. As a contingency-based law firm, our expert insurance claims attorneys aggressively fight for the rights of the policyholder. Free consultation. No recovery equals no fee. Contact us today.

Victory: Texas Jury Awards Damages To State Farm Policyholder Over Unfair And Deceptive Practices

Linda Veach first called her insurance company, State Farm, the day after a big and loud storm passed through Irving, Texas on June 6 of 2018. When she called to report her concerns, she was told that nobody from State Farm was going to come out and look at her house and that they did not think any damage was done. Trusting her insurance company, she accepted what she was told. When the damage to her seven-year-old roof was later pointed out to her by a neighbor, she looked for herself. She found the “dents” that were caused by hail. Linda called State Farm again, explained what she saw, and let them know that she really wanted them to look at her hail-damaged roof.

State Farm sent their adjuster. He spent about an hour going over the roof and inside of the home only to tell Linda that there was some damage to a flat part of the roof and a few other parts of the home. He left a few handwritten notices and a check for $549.95. Days later his actual estimate and partial denial letter came in the mail. The estimate did not match what was told by the adjuster. It included coverage for some hail-damaged items on the outside of the house and a few interior repairs. Not included in the estimate was any of the hail-damaged roof, not even the flat roof that Linda was told had hail damage.

Linda tried to handle things on her own, asking State Farm to take a better look, and even unsuccessfully trying to invoke the appraisal clause in her State Farm policy. Throughout the process, State Farm and its representatives played “gotcha” with her claim, raised technicalities against her, and refused to do the right thing. So, Linda hired the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm and a suit was filed against State Farm. 

Chad Wilson and Robert House of the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm fought to get answers and to protect Linda from these games. Along the way, they tried to get State Farm to resolve the case through negotiations and mediation. State Farm actively failed to do right by its policyholder at every step along the way. State Farm hired biased experts who said that there was no hail damage done to Linda’s roof, but instead what looked like hail damage was a product defect on the shingles. State Farm even tried to keep their full expert reports and other materials from their policyholder.

Through the four-day trial in United States District Court, it became clear that State Farm had all the information they needed to take the correct action on the date of the very first inspection. On August 26, 2021 the jury returned its verdict finding that State Farm failed to comply with its insurance policy, awarding all costs required for Ms. Veach’s repairs, and that State Farm engaged in unfair or deceptive acts or practices that caused damages to the plaintiff, awarding a little more than two times the costs for the repairs for those damages. Separate from the jury’s findings, the court will be asked to assess attorney fees and other costs against State Farm.

The jury told State Farm that it could not take advantage of its policyholders and hope they will go away silently and thanks to the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm, Linda Veach will be able to get the repairs done to her home and fix all the damage caused by the hailstorm.

In March this year, the Texas Supreme Court published its landmark opinion on another Chad T. Wilson Law Firm case – again, a client insured by State Farm, Luis Hinijos.  This was a huge win for all policyholders in Texas because it stopped all insurance companies from utilizing a carrier-created loophole to circumvent Texas law.  Here’s the typical scenario. An insured has a covered loss and notifies their insurance company.  The company would accept the claim and pay pennies on the dollar of the damages. The insured would complain but the carrier would not budge far from its initial position. The insured would then sue and the carrier, State Farm being the worst culprit, would run up litigation expenses. Appraisal of the damages would be invoked to set the cost to repair; the carrier would send a check for the appraisal award less the depreciation less the deductible less prior payments if any. The carrier would run back to the court and ask for summary judgment claiming “no harm, no foul judge” – and they were getting away with it. This left insureds economically upside down on their cases. The Chad T. Wilson Law Firm took Mr. Hinojos’s case to the Texas Supreme Court to stop this trend in its tracks. The Court agreed stating that an insurer is not absolved of its statutory liability when it pays only part of a claim within the statutory deadline set forth in the statute. An insurer that fails to pay all amounts that “must be paid” under the applicable policy will be liable for interest and attorney’s fees. On the street, this means if an appraisal award comes back higher than the insurance company’s initial estimate of damages, they owe the difference plus interest plus attorney fees and they are still on the hook for damages for violations of the Texas Insurance Code and Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. 

The Chad T. Wilson Law Firm handles insurance property disputes and takes on tough, serious cases against some of the largest corporations in America.