Minors had money to fight their insurer for 19 years over Katrina damage. They finally won
Mississippi Coast policyholders with enough money to fight their insurance company have won a case over Hurricane Katrina damage to their home more than 19 years after the storm.
The state Supreme Court decided in favor of the estate of Sylvia Minor and the Minor’s two children in their lawsuit filed against United Services Automobile Association. Syliva Minor, who died in 2009 of breast cancer, was married to former Biloxi attorney Paul Minor.
Paul Minor, who now lives in Louisiana, was once one of the state’s top trial lawyers and also represented policyholders in fights against their insurance companies.
A final ruling in the case was a long time coming, said Biloxi attorney Jim Reeves, who joined former state Rep. David Baria in representing the Minors.
“The Minors had the financial wherewithal to fight it as long as they did,” Reeves said. “Almost nobody else could have done that. For every verdict like this, I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of policyholders were abused. Most people have to get on with their lives.”
USAA said in a statement:
“USAA helped thousands of families recover from Hurricane Katrina, with countless employees working tirelessly to handle member claims. We are very disappointed in the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision as the evidence does not support the excessive punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
“USAA is analyzing the majority opinion, as well as dissenting opinions that agreed with USAA’s arguments, and are assessing our legal options.”
Wind vs. flood insurance battles
Thousands of policyholders fought insurers to be compensated for wind damage when insurance companies claimed they owed little or nothing because their policies didn’t cover Hurricane Katrina’s formidable storm surge.
An earlier Supreme Court ruling established that insurers must prove flooding caused the damage or pay the claim, but that decision came too late for many who settled their claims for pennies on the dollar. Flood damage is generally covered by the federal government through National Flood Insurance Program policies.
A jury awarded the Minors $1,547,293.37 in damages to compensate them for their losses when the case went to trial in 2013. But the jury dismissed the family’s claim for punitive damages, designed to punish the company for acting in bad faith.
The state Court of Appeals found that a jury, rather than the judge needed to decide whether USAA acted in bad faith and sent the case back to Jackson County Circuit Court.
USAA appealed the jury’s ruling that found the Minors were owed $10 million in punitive damages and $457,858.89 in attorneys’ fees.
The state Supreme Court this week affirmed the jury award, and awarded an additional $4.5 million in attorney’s fees, with interest dating to October 2022, based on a cross-appeal from the Minors.
The Minors filed their original lawsuit in 2008 after USAA failed to cover the destruction of their $1 million waterfront home and other covered property on East Beach Drive. The historic home was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Supreme Court opinion says: “The evidence presented at trial revealed that USAA wished to reap the benefits of the insurance policy premiums while depriving the Minor Estate the full benefits of that policy.
“Based on the evidence, a reasonable, hypothetical juror could find that USAA had breached its contract with reckless disregard for the estate’s rights.”
Regarding the award of additional attorneys’ fees, the Supreme Court. opinion says: “After review, we find that the trial court abused its discretion by finding that the estate should bear the obligation of paying its attorneys’ fees with nearly half of its punitive damages award. As previously stated, the $10 million punitive damages award is .00025 of USAA’s reported net worth of $40 billion.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 4:25 PM.
