David Rosmiller has posted a decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on the Broussard Katrina-slab case:
We REVERSE the judgment of the district court entering JMOL in favor of the Broussards. We REVERSE and VACATE the jury’s award of punitive damages. We AFFIRM the district court’s admission of testimony from the Broussards’ expert witness. We AFFIRM the district court’s denial of State Farm’s motion to change venue. We REMAND the case for a new trial.
The Broussards were the State Farm policyholders who brought one of the landmark Katrina slab cases. The judge in the case essentially ruled from the bench that State Farm was liable to pay policy limits since they “failed to prove” the damage wasn’t caused by flood, and let a jury determine punitive damages.
(Yes, I know that a lawyer could wax poetically to point out the technical inaccuracies in that last statement. However, I’m not a lawyer. Net effect was that it was a big slap-down upon State Farm.)
So, with the appellate decision, State Farm looks to get its day before the jury in this case.
As someone who’s been in claims limbo for over six years due to my wife’s car accident, I can empathize with the Broussards over what waiting for the appeal, and now the new trial, must feel like to them.
Hopefully, the aftermath of this and the other Katrina homeowners cases will lead to better coordination between wind and water claims, as well as less of a need to plug extremely paranoid scenarios into the cat models…all of which should mean not-quite-as-astronomic costs for Gulf coast insureds.
