Asher Liam Senor, all 9lbs. 4ozs and 21.5 inches of him, arrived before game time – giving his grandfather time to celebrate his arrival and the Tar Heels’ big win! Congratulations, Jim. Send us a picture (of your grandson, not the basketball team)
Big news in Louisiana! Rebecca Mowbray reports Court decision extends time frame for suing insurers for the Times Picayune.
Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and other insurers may face a new round of lawsuits related to Hurricane Katrina even though the deadline for filing expired a year and a half ago. The Louisiana Supreme Court declined late last week to hear an appeal in the case of Brenda Pitts v. Louisiana Citizens, thereby allowing a lower court decision favorable to policyholders to stand.
In January, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that Pitts could file suit against Citizens months after the deadline for initiating litigation had passed because a class action lawsuit involving similar grievances had stopped the clock on the issue.
Citizens chief executive John Wortman said about 90 new cases have been filed against Citizens since the appeals court decision in January, and he believes that other insurance companies will face the same dilemma. “We’re trying to understand the impact on us at this time. This isn’t just us, but a whole lot of other people too,” Wortman said. Greg LaCost, an attorney with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said the deadlines help insurers determine how much money they need to set aside to pay claims and how they might need to set rates in the future. “That’s a concern,” LaCost said.
Eight business and insurance groups filed briefs in the case supporting Citizens. Pitts’ grievances were originally covered by two class action petitions filed against Citizens, but the courts threw one case out and narrowed the class definition in the other in such a way that it no longer included Pitts’ complaint. Because her complaint was no longer covered, Pitts filed an individual suit against Citizens in February 2008. The Fourth Circuit decision said the filing could proceed.
Louisiana law used to give policyholders one year after a disaster to file suit against their insurance company, but the Legislature extended the deadline to two years after Hurricane Katrina. Pitts filed suit well after the two-year mark, but the Fourth Circuit found that her deadline was reset once the notice was mailed notifying her that she could no longer participate in the class action.
The courts still need to clarify whether policyholders have one or two years to file suit after the deadline resets. Policyholders could have until May 2009 or May 2010 to file suit against Citizens.
Tulane Law School Professor Ed Sherman said the Fourth Circuit decision could affect other insurers that have been embroiled in class action suits since Katrina. Insurance companies could face a barrage of additional suits if class definitions are narrowed in suits over the levee breaches or in the case former Attorney General Charles Foti brought against the Road Home program, for example. In early March, a federal judge dismissed key portions of Foti’s Road Home suit. “It give enormous power to any lawyer who files a class action that’s broad enough to cover general claims. The possibility of using a class action device really does extend the prescriptive period,” Sherman said.
Sop and I both have full plates at work this week. I’ll have more breaks than a CPA at tax time and will be in and out – catching up on comments and the posts sitting in the drafts file waiting to be finished.
Congrats, that’s a big boy!