Posted On: April 2, 2007, 4:57 pm CDT

Posted By: Mississippi Underwriter

#1: State Farm properly denied slab losses by applying the concurrent causation exclusion that is part of their policy. (If the property becomes a total loss because of an excluded peril, there is no coverage.) It is their right to include this exclusion. Their form was filed and approved by the department of insurance. And, like all other insurance policies these days, the language is such that a person with an 8th grade education can read and understand it. It's not the company's fault if the policy holder does not read it. In my opinion, any policy holder who does not take the time to read and understand their insurance policies are simply irresponsible.
#2: The reason State Farm and Nationwide are the only companies you hear about being sued is simple to understand....its because they write more policies in Mississippi than almost all the other companies combined. More importantly...they are two of only a handful who write homeowners policies in the coastal counties of the state. And, of that handful who write in the coastal counties, most of them do not cover wind damage. Furthermore, of those that write homeowners policies in the coastal counties AND include coverage for wind damage, almost none (other than State Farm and Nationwide) write homes closer than a mile from the water. That means that the vast majority of homes located close enough to the water to be included in the storm surge area were insured by either State Farm or Nationwide. And State Farm wrote more of these than did Nationwide. That means that State Farm got more slab claims that anybody else.