A San Bernardino County jury has delivered a significant verdict, awarding two sisters $18 million in damages after finding their insurance provider guilty of acting in bad faith by offering a mere $5,000 to cover repairs following storm damage to their home.
Jennifer Garnier and Angela Toft, residents of Pinon Hills, were awarded $6 million for pain and suffering and $12 million in punitive damages following a six-week trial in San Bernardino Superior Court. The ruling, delivered on April 18, was in response to their claims against Arizona-based American Reliable, as confirmed by their attorney Michael Hernandez of San Diego.
The lawsuit, initiated in September 2020, detailed how a severe storm on February 15, 2019, resulted in flooding that rendered the sisters’ property uninhabitable. Despite promptly notifying American Reliable of the damage and undergoing an inspection, the insurance company allegedly underpaid the claim, providing only $5,000 despite contractor estimates indicating repairs would exceed $100,000.
The flood had inundated their home’s crawlspace, damaging crucial systems such as heating, air conditioning, and electrical wiring, ultimately leaving parts of the house without power and causing structural issues, Hernandez explained in a press release.
Garnier and Toft filed suit against American Reliable Insurance Co. and its parent company, Global Indemnity, citing breach of contract and bad faith dealings. The legal battle forced the sisters to endure living without heat for five years while awaiting a resolution in court.
In a surprising turn, Global Indemnity eventually paid the full policy amount of $140,000 in October 2023, claiming ignorance about the sisters’ living conditions during the earlier stages of the dispute. Hernandez countered that this acknowledgment came belatedly after prolonged legal struggles.
Hernandez highlighted that the defense had argued the sisters’ insistence on written communication made them difficult to engage with, a claim he refuted by asserting that ample information about the living conditions had been provided to the insurers.
“We argued that knowingly leaving a family in an uninhabitable home makes one responsible for the consequences,” Hernandez stated.
Requests for comments from attorneys representing American Reliable and Global Indemnity remained unanswered at the time of reporting.
This case underscores the significance of insurance providers honoring their obligations to policyholders in times of crisis, setting a precedent for accountability in the industry.
