Miss. Commissioner Dale: Leader, Follower or Shill?

George Dale walks a tightrope in his job as Mississippi’s insurance commissioner.

He is charged with the responsibility of regulating the industry that provides most of his election support while protecting consumers who depend on their insurance companies when disaster strikes.

All eyes are on Dale’s high-wire act as thousands of insurance claims are disputed along the Coast.

Dale himself says: “It’s a very, very difficult line to walk. If I had the authority to tell insurance companies, ‘Pay every claim,’ I’d do it. As elected commissioner of insurance, I would have to do that, need to do that, would like to do that.

“But at the same time if I did that, insurance companies would just not write (policies) in the state of Mississippi, because they would pay out far more than they could ever take in. You have to walk that thin line between the consumer and the insurance companies.

“And, frankly, for someone to do it for 31 years is amazing.”

Dale’s critics hardly think he has walked that line: They’re convinced he’s on the insurance industry’s side.

In the early 1990s, attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs supported Dale as commissioner. Today, he is heading a group of attorneys who have signed up 3,000 clients with unresolved Hurricane Katrina claims.
Scruggs said, “Now that I’ve gotten into this, I realize the guy’s been asleep at the switch, charitably. Otherwise, he’s been shilling for the insurance industry.”

A look at Hurricane Katrina, which packed a storm surge that defied prediction, offers some insight into how Dale has approached his job.

On one hand, he is a homespun, folksy politician who takes telephone calls from constituents at home and rings up insurance executives to follow up on complaints; on the other, he allows insurers to use at least one policy provision contrary to state law, invited the industry to operate out of his state offices right after the storm and criticized the state’s attorney general for suing the state’s major insurers in hopes of winning coverage for Coast homeowners.

Do hurricanes cause floods?

Dale says he warned consumers they needed flood coverage for hurricanes.

On July 6, 2005, almost two months before Katrina struck, he distributed a news release headlined, “Mississippi Insurance Department reminds Gulf Coast residents what to do after storm passes.”

But though that release points out some insurance policies do not cover wind damage, and talks about the “hurricane deductible” in many policies, nowhere does it say homeowners’ policies do not cover storm surge from a hurricane.

Instead, it says: “Remember also that homeowner’s policies do not cover flood damage from rising waters. If you live in a flood-prone area, contact your agent about obtaining flood insurance, which is written by the National Flood Insurance Program. Be advised, however, that there is a 30-day waiting period before the policy goes into effect.”

The fact is, policy language, approved by an insurance commissioner before Dale took office in 1976, excludes “water damage,” including “wind-driven water” from coverage.

Dale agrees with insurers that Katrina’s tidal surge is wind-driven water. But Attorney General Jim Hood’s lawsuit, and dozens of others, are asking a judge to settle the issue.

As an alternative to litigation, Dale has decided to offer consumers a mediation program modeled after one in Florida. An objective third party sits down with the policyholder and an insurance company representative to settle a claim. The program has worked best when the amount of money owed is in dispute, but Dale says it can also be effective in wind vs. water debates.

The constituent’s advocate

One on one, George Dale is a champ. His down-to-earth style has served him well with voters.

Long Beach resident Gary Ponthieux, a former member of the board of aldermen, called Dale when he could get no satisfaction from his insurance company, State Farm Fire & Casualty.

Ponthieux believes his insurer should cover Katrina’s destruction of his home. He said he and his son almost died in the house when a tornado hit before the water rose.

Dale listened and called State Farm; Ponthieux heard from an adjuster the next day. The company also sent out a structural engineer to determine what role wind and water played in the damage. Still, Ponthieux’s claim remains unresolved five months after the storm.

He doesn’t blame Dale and in fact is grateful to the commissioner for trying to help.

James “Bud” Ray, a Long Beach resident who lived on the waterfront, called Dale at his Clinton home the Saturday after the hurricane. He had been unable to reach anyone at the commissioner’s Jackson office during the week because it was closed due to power and telephone outages.

Dale called the chief executive at Ray’s insurance company, Clarendon, and has continued to take calls from Ray, whose homeowner’s claim remains unresolved.

Ray offers this view of the insurance commissioner: “I can tell you right now, I think he dropped the ball miserably in helping set the tone for this thing,” he said. “His absence of leadership allowed the insurance companies to take a dominant role.

“We were in a state of total chaos. If he had been out front and put the hammer down initially, I don’t know what the results would have been, but it certainly would have been comforting for us to know that the person we elected as our insurance commissioner was out there beating the drums on our behalf.”

It was on Sept. 7, one week and two days after Katrina struck, that Dale admonished insurance companies to inspect property before dismissing claims based on the “water damage” exclusion.

“In instances where the insurance company believes the damage was caused by water,” Dale’s September bulletin said, “I expect the insurance company to be able to prove to this office and the insured that the damage was caused by water and not by wind.”

“These are very difficult times for our state and region, and I ask that the insurance industry construe coverage issues in a manner that will afford coverage to as many of our citizens as possible.”

It’s been a long time

The courts accept as fact the notion that few people review their insurance policies and even fewer understand them.

Attorneys studying the policies, which are considered contracts, point out that Dale allows insurance companies to include a one-year deadline for lawsuits. State law allows three years, says Ocean Springs attorney Earl Denham.

He said the disparity may seem harmless. But when an insurance company approaches a customer 18 months after offering a small settlement, points out the policy’s one-year limit on lawsuits and again offers the same small settlement, what will the customer do? More often than not, Denham said, the customer accepts the settlement.

On more than one occasion, the Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled in an insurance consumer’s favor, agreed with a jury’s monetary award to punish the insurance company for bad behavior, then admonished in its opinion: “Once again, this court is called upon to redress grievances which might have been avoided by proper state regulation of insurance company practices.”

Dale proudly acknowledges he is pro-business and was the first state official to publicly endorse limiting monetary damages juries may award in personal-injury cases.

Scruggs, who earned a billion dollars suing tobacco companies, was on the opposite side of that debate.

Yet at one time, Scruggs supported Dale. In the early 1990s, federal prosecutors investigated Dale’s relationship with insurers. Scruggs said he contributed $5,000 to Dale’s defense fund.

Dale referred to the investigation in a recent interview, saying federal agents were unable after three years of digging to prove he had done anything wrong.

“I don’t know any other politician who has gone through as much scrutiny as I have on campaign contributions,” he said.

Although he has had little competition for the job, Dale’s campaign finance report filed a year ago shows a campaign balance of $156,512. Reports indicate the insurance industry is his biggest supporter. His 2005 report is due at the end of January.

Dale is well thought of in the insurance industry. The Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade organization, set up a hurricane information center after Katrina hit. Until he could get settled elsewhere, institute spokesman Bill Bailey worked out of Dale’s offices.

“He very kindly let me set up so I could start communicating back to the insurance companies,” Bailey said. “The more I had contact with George, got to know him better, the more I realized this is a very wise man. He’s been around a long time.”

And that’s the problem, said Robert Hunter, former Texas insurance commissioner and now a consumer advocate.

“I certainly can’t think of anything he’s done that has been pro-consumer,” Hunter said. “He’s not awful, either. He hasn’t taken leadership in a pro-consumer way, but he hasn’t been aggressively bad.

“He’s just there. For a long time, too.”

Mississippi’s mediation program

One hundred Mississippi homeowners have sought mediation with their insurers for post-Katrina settlement disputes.

“I’m surprised it’s not more than 100,” state Insurance Commissioner George Dale said. “This is a good program. We hope to start those conferences around the first of February.”

The mediation program, which began Jan. 6, is modeled after one organized in Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

In that program, 93 percent of the cases reached a mutually agreed-upon settlement.

Authorities estimated 65,000 people in Mississippi lost their homes to Katrina.

In Harrison, Jackson and Hancock counties, insurers have paid out $2 billion on an estimated 141,000 claims.

Mediation is not binding and is paid for by the insurers.

A homeowner who is dissatisfied with the process still has the right to file a lawsuit. Also, the policyholder has the right to rescind any agreement within three business days unless a check has been offered to the homeowner and cashed.

Storm surge and wind losses from Katrina are estimated at $20 billion to $25 billion for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Risk Management Solutions, which estimated the losses, does not have figures for Mississippi only.

Topics Lawsuits Catastrophe Carriers Flood Leadership Mississippi Homeowners Hurricane Market