Day: July 14, 2009

SLABBED Daily and stuck like a dope with a thing called hope – July 14

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I’m stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can’t get it out of my heart!

Sure, I’m a cockeyed optimist because, after all, there’s no place called Fingers Crossed, Arkansas; and, then, because there is this to consider:

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.

Not only is it poor manners to slam a door, much less slam a door  in anyone’s face, you just don’t ever slam doors in God’s face – although:

I hear the human race
Is fallin’ on its face
And hasn’t very far to go…

It is with the door of SLABBED open that I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope that those in positions of power and responsibility – Chaney, those who serve on the Southern District Court, our Supremes, and the Fifth; Secretary Napolitano, the President, Members of Congress, the media and all others – will conduct a full inquiry of all Katrina insurance-related issues and offer balanced decisions.

Sop nailed the current problem in a comment he made of the Allstate Finance Board this morning:

I’ve come to believe the problem isn’t that Northbrook Il has a great number of people of questionable moral character, rather it is human beings being……well human.

On behalf of the SLABBED and with hope that human beings being……well human will show the better side of human, I offer this Irish Blessing:

May those who love us, love us
And those who don’t love us, May God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping!

Amen!
Nowdy

A reminder that grant recipients must amend their taxes no later than July 31, 2009…

To utilize the provisions of IRS Notice 08-95 dealing with the special carve out for Katrina/Rita grant recipients. Nowdy’s post on that topic with a link to the IRS guidance can be found here. To the return (and I’ve done several) the grant recipients came out ahead being able to amend their 2005 returns, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars.

The congressman of the Slabbed, Gene Taylor, gets a big attaboy for helping get this relief through congress.

sop

Merlin: Court rules them that’s got your policy have good faith obligation to investigate all facts supporting coverage, not just those that do not!

Thanks, Sop! Perfect music for today’s post on Merlin’s blog: Property Insurers Have An Obligation To Investigate All Facts Supporting Coverage.

An attorney from another law firm asked me whether an insurer is obligated to investigate facts supporting coverage in a property insurance coverage dispute. It is common for colleagues to share information and help when they can. It seems that the more one shares, the more one receives –usually with compound interest.

Although SLABBED is more often on the receiving end, our standing “share and share alike” agreement with Chip paid compound interest today:

…an insurer cannot reasonably and in good faith deny payments to its insured without fully investigating the grounds for its denial…. Indeed, in Egan v. Mutual of Omaha Ins. Co… the Supreme Court emphasized that, in order to protect the interests of its insured, it was “essential that an insurer fully inquire into possible bases that might support the insured’s claim.”

Today’s “compound interest” also includes this comment from one of Merlin’s readers:

I often wondered why we spent so much time in elementary school diagramming sentences. Now as an adjuster I have a clue.

More about the “language of Katrina litigation” later.  Now, and with a big tip of the SLABBED hat, here’s Merlin:

Currently my favorite case on the topic of an insurer’s obligation to investigate fully for facts supporting coverage (rather than facts supporting only denial) is Jordan v. Allstate Ins. Co., 148 Cal. App. 4th 1062 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. 2007). Continue reading “Merlin: Court rules them that’s got your policy have good faith obligation to investigate all facts supporting coverage, not just those that do not!”