Jury limits additional payment to contents

By MARY PEREZ - meperez@sunherald.com

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GULFPORT — After deliberating for 80 minutes Tuesday, a jury said Reginald Bossier isn’t entitled to any additional money for damage to his Biloxi home during Hurricane Katrina, but State Farm does owe him $52,300 for damage to its contents.

In the case of Bossier v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., the jury of five men and three women also found Bossier shouldn’t receive any compensation for additional living expenses after his home was destroyed.

The jury will return to federal court Thursday at 1 p.m. to decide if Bossier should be awarded punitive damages in the case. Sr. Judge L.T. Senter Jr. said State Farm had no legal reason for denying Bossier’s claim for three years on and outbuilding and the contents of that building.

Bossier had asked the jury for the policy limit of $650,000 on his home on the north side of Biloxi’s Back Bay. The judge instructed the jury members they could award him from zero to a maximum of $325,337.87 for damage to the home and up to $255,907 for contents.

The policy covered wind damage but not damage from flooding or storm surge. State Farm had paid Bossier $93,480 for wind damage, including $77,000 for the outbuilding four years after Katrina as the case headed to trial.

Water seen as culprit

“The jury found that the home was destroyed by water, not wind,” State Farm representative Bob Lapinski said after the ruling. “State Farm showed the 8-foot storm surge had a devastating effect on the Bossier one-story, oceanfront home.”

Lapinski said State Farm paid for minor damage to shingles and siding caused by the wind. He said the company gave Bossier the benefit of the doubt for damage to the outbuilding. “That could have possibly occurred because of wind.”

Of the 400,000 claims State Farm processed in Mississippi after Katrina, “only a handful continue to remain in dispute,” he said.

Representing Bossier were attorneys Judy Guice and Stanton Fountain Jr. Guice said she will wait until after the case concludes to comment.