Bad Faith Claim by Arkansas Tornado Victim: Insurer Ignored Valued Policy Law

A complaint filed this week in federal court by a Wynne woman whose home was destroyed March 31 by an EF-3 tornado that decimated much of the Cross County city claims that her insurance company undervalued the coverage on her home by more than $200,000.

According to a complaint filed by Forrest City attorney Austin Easley on behalf of Martha White of Wynne, White’s home, located at 611 N. Wilson St. in Wynne, sat almost in the center of the the tornado’s path and its 150 mile per hour winds and was destroyed.

Inspections of the home by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and the Wynne Fire Department determined the structure to be a total loss, the complaint said, as did a claims adjuster for Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company, the company that insured White’s home.

According to the complaint, White’s home was insured for $641,525 but she was only offered $425,091.78 for her loss, which was $215,433.22 less than the insured value.

The complaint charges Allstate with breach of contract by not timely paying the full amount of the coverage as listed on the policy and of acting in bad faith in a number of areas, including launching an investigation into the value of White’s home for more than six weeks while White remained without a place to live and "with full knowledge that the actual value of the home is not relevant to the amount of the claim for the dwelling," and of doing so in disregard of state law requiring payment for the full insured value.