When Paul Bergersen told the Kansas Insurance Department that his company was treating auto policyholders with Hispanic surnames differently than others, investigators had little experience to draw upon.
Bergersen, who is white and was Shelter Mutual Insurance Co.’s leading salesman in Kansas when he filed his formal complaint in May 2003, told the Kansas Insurance Department that Shelter canceled or failed to renew auto policies after the initial 60-day underwriting period for Hispanics, but not for other groups. He also alleged the firm discriminated against minorities in settling claims.
“We are not experts in racial or national origin type discrimination,” said John Campbell, general counsel for the Kansas Insurance Department and the investigator in the case. “As far as I could tell this was the first time the department ever launched an investigation of racial discrimination.”
The department ruled last year that it could find no systemic discrimination at the company, saying an investigation of that nature was beyond the scope of its examination. The department referred the case to the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division, which declined to investigate, saying the matter was outside its jurisdiction.
Campbell said that was a recognition that Kansas’ insurance regulators were not civil rights experts, adding he now wishes the state agency had brought such experts into the investigation at the start.
Bergersen, who was fired a few months after filing his complaint, also alleged Shelter discouraged agents from writing policies for Hispanics and handled those accounts differently.
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