Insurance company reaches settlement with Evansville victims

EVANSVILLE – A Florida insurer that used disposable cameras – not agents – to initially document damage from a deadly tornado has agreed to pay additional settlements to about 20 storm victims.\nAmerican Bankers Insurance Co. also agreed to pay a $37,500 fine and make a $50,000 charitable donation to the Southwestern Indiana Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Carol Mihalik, chief deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Insurance.\nThe payments stem from a settlement the insurer reached with regulators over complaints about claims handling after a November 2005 tornado devastated the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and killed 25 people across Southwestern Indiana.\nMihalik said state officials took issue with the way that the company handled claims compared with other insurers.\nAmerican Bankers mailed disposable cameras to Love Homes, Eastbrook’s mobile home seller, and had their sales agents take pictures of damaged homes, Mihalik said. The insurance company’s agent, HomeFirst Agency, then used the photographs to adjust claims.\nSome residents received as little as 10 percent of what they should have on their claims, Insurance Commissioner James Atterholt said.\nMihalik said other insurers “were writing people checks on the spot.”\n“Other companies sent out claims adjusters right away, skilled, competent adjusters who knew what they were doing,” Mihalik said.\nMihalik declined to specify the amounts of the additional settlements.\nAmerican Bankers spokesman Jim Sykes said the company regrets the problems.\n“However, once we became aware of the complaints, we assumed direct responsibility for the adjustment process and dispatched a vice president of claims to Evansville to personally take charge,” Sykes said.\nSykes said the company wound up paying amounts in excess of policy requirements in many cases.\nOf the 25 people who died in the 2005 storm, 20 died at the mobile home park.