Property Insurance Claim Results
Representative Cases Regarding Property Coverage
Following are examples of actual verdicts and settlements obtained by Pillsbury & Coleman in cases involving residential property coverage. Additional results can be reviewed when you speak with an attorney at our firm. If plaintiff or insurance company names do not appear it is because confidentiality agreements are in place restricting that information.
Property Owner v. Insurance Company
| Case Issues | Insurance bad faith claim, improperly refused to pay claim for building fire. |
| Result | Seven-figure settlement |
| Summary | Our client suffered the loss of her small ski cabin to a fire. After making a claim for the damage under her homeowner’s policy, her insurer performed a biased and highly intrusive investigation and, using patently incompetent science, accused her of burning down her own property to fraudulently collect on her insurance policy.
Pillsbury & Coleman hired experts who quickly determined the fire was electrical and accidental, and debunked the insurance company’s theories through evidence and depositions. The matter settled two months before trial. |
Bay Area Homeowners v. Insurance Company
| Case Issue | Insurance company refused to pay for full remediation of our client’s landslide onto neighboring property. |
| Result | 100 percent payment of the claim and 100 percent reimbursement of our client’s attorneys fees to pursue insurance company. |
| Summary | We represented homeowners who suffered severe property damage due to a landslide. Insurance company refused to pay for complete remediation of the hillside. We sued for breach of the policy and bad faith. After defeating the insurer’s effort to dismiss the lawsuit, we settled for payment of 100 percent of claim, including the bad faith claim, obtaining reimbursement of the full cost to repair the hillside as well as the attorneys fees paid by our client. |
Homeowners v. Insurance Company
| Case Issue | Massive water leak damaged high-end home; insurance company offered a fraction of repair cost to settle the claim; client sued for breach of contract and bad faith. |
| Result | Confidential settlement |
| Summary | Clients’ high-end home damaged by a water leak and they tendered the claim under their homeowner’s policy. Insurance company’s failure to respond for several months allowed mold to develop and forced the clients to move out of their home. The client obtained and submitted bids for repairs for $4.0M and above, each one of which was rejected by the insurer. We argued that the insurance company committed bad faith by rejecting our clients’ bids and low-balling the repair estimate. After an appraisal panel awarded $3.152M, the case settled for a confidential amount. |
Homeowner v. Insurance Company
| Case Issue | After a fire destroyed her modest home, our client, a diabetic woman who was partially blind and poor, was forced to move her family into Section 8, low-income rental housing when Allstate, her property insurance company, refused to pay her claim. In their claim denial, they falsely accused the homeowner of arson.
We filed an insurance bad faith lawsuit and settled for an amount that far exceeded the limits of her insurance policy. |
Tough Negotiators, Passionate Litigators
To discuss your insurance-related concern, contact Pillsbury & Coleman, LLP. From our law offices in San Francisco, we represent clients throughout California and across the nation.