Facts

Plaintiff Marc Collins bought a speedboat on April 17, 2006. The vessel is a 1999 38-foot Wellcraft.

In January 2009, Progressive asked that plaintiff to have the vessel appraised in order to obtain an "agreed-value" policy. Such a policy promises to pay a set amount should the vessel be declared a total loss. Plaintiff found an appraiser who examined the vessel and appraised it as being worth $165,000, with a new replacement value of $320,000.

On April 28, 2009, Progressive agreed to increase the agreed value of the vessel to $187,730.

The boat was stolen in front of Plaintiff's house during the night of June 13, 2009. Plaintiff and his wife were staying at a hotel at the time of the theft. Plaintiff promptly reported the claim.

Progressive denied the claim on June 23, 2010.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
On June 15, 2009, Progressive opened the claim. Two days later, Progressive referred the file to its Special Investigations Unit, which then sought to implicate Plaintiff in the theft. At the time of the referral, the only evidence in the file was that the boat's registration had expired and Plaintiff had had a car stolen three years earlier.

SIU then conducted an investigation in order to implicate Plaintiff in the theft. It turned out, however, that even the SIU people agreed that it would take one hour and 45 minutes to drive from the loss location to the recovery location. When Progressive obtained Plaintiff's phone records, they showed that Plaintiff was local to the hotel where he said he had stayed. The biggest gap is two hours, which would not have been enough time to do the drive let alone the stripping of the vessel, which SIU admitted would require a plasma torch and some very sophisticated equipment.

SIU confirmed with the hotel that Plaintiff had been there for two nights.

Progressive then hired an attorney to take Plaintiff's Examination Under Oath Nov. 20, 2009.

On Feb. 4, 2010, Plaintiff's counsel wrote to Progressive's counsel asking what was going on with respect to the claim. No response was ever sent to this letter until May 5, 2010.

Progressive's counsel then wrote to the adjuster Harris on March 17, 2010, that the boat was in bad condition when inspected because it had been stripped and was sitting outside and that the phone records were vital because they would show Plaintiff's location. On April 6, 2010, Progressive's counsel wrote to Harris that the claim should be denied because Plaintiff said they had stayed in the hotel for two nights and at one point Perla Collins stated that she thought they were only there for only one night (a mistake she quickly corrected). SIU had already confirmed with the hotel that they were there for two nights.

Progressive did not question that the boat was a total loss and that the phone records showed plaintiff was not involved in the theft. Progressive also failed to respond to written requests for information regarding the claim for over 90 days, a clear violation of the Insurance Regulations.

Progressive admitted that Plaintiff was not involved in the theft, yet it persisted in refusing to pay the claim.

Result

The case settled before Jeffrey Krivis at a mediation where Progressive agreed to pay $235,000.

Other Information

FILING DATE: June 30, 2010.