Off The Cuff

Katrina Victims Are Victims One More Time

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, What's Wrong With This Picture? on Aug 02 2007

Welcome back!

Unbelievable as it may seem, the victims of Katrina are once again victims, this time of the insurance companies that are always wanting the payments but are not as willing to pay a claim. A federal appeals court ruled that the insurance companies do not have to pay up to the victims because the damage was not covered under the policies they carried.

That sounds unbelievable to me. Yet, the court views the insurance policy as not being clear about the difference between what they call an “act of God” and an act of man. Obviously, they blame the hurricane on an act of God (I totally disagree with that assessment but that’s another post). The levees that broke happened because of an act of man….more more specifically a lack of act of man. The policies were written specifically to disclude flooding in a flood plain.

The judge was not happy to rule in this way but the insurance companies did a fine job of making it too vague to legally be liable for paying the claims. Unfortunately, this does not help the insured in any way. The only good that could possibly come of it would be that they could possibly be entitled to seek relief from the government if it is not too late now. It probably is though.

Now is the time to beware of unscrupulous insurance companies before you need them to pay a claim. Included in the court appeals case were Allstate and Travelers insurance. Yep, we are all in your hands, right? Wrong.

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