Workers' Compensation Bad Faith?

A former nursing home worker has been awarded more than $12 million in a judgment against three insurance companies that denied her workers' compensation claim. A Rapid City, S.D. jury returned its verdict - $60,000 in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages - last week after a a four-day trial in federal court. The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court in Rapid City in July 2001. The plaintiff accused the companies of bad-faith dealing, barratry, abuse of process, and interference with business and contract relations. In 1999, Alice Torres, a cook at Meadowbrook Manor nursing home in Rapid City, filed a workers' compensation claim for carpal tunnel syndrome. She had sought about $8,000 for medical bills, lost time and physical impairment. But insurance adjusters denied the claim. The defendants in the case were Travelers Insurance Co., Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, and Constitution State Services, a subsidiary of Travelers. All were involved as claims administrators or insurers for Beverly Enterprises, parent company of Meadowbrook Manor.
- posted by Donald @ 11:21 AM