A San Bernardino County jury has awarded two women $18 million after determining their insurance carrier acted in bad faith when it failed to pay out more than $100,000 to cover repairs for their flood-damaged home.
Jurors awarded Pinon Hills residents Jennifer Garnier and Angela Toft $6 million for pain and suffering and $12 million in punitive damages on April 18, following a six-week trial in San Bernardino Superior Court, said their attorney, Michael Hernandez of San Diego.
According to a lawsuit filed in San Bernardino Superior Court in September 2020, rain water from a large storm on Feb. 15, 2019, flooded the home of Garnier and Toft, who are sisters. The damage rendered their property uninhabitable, according to the lawsuit.
Garnier and Toft, according to the suit, gave their insurance company, Arizona-based American Reliable, timely notice of the damage, and American Reliable had an inspection done at the property. But the claims adjuster, according to the lawsuit, underpaid the claim.
Water and mud in the home’s crawlspace destroyed the heating and air conditioning system and damaged the electrical system, leaving much of the house without electricity. Cracks began appearing on walls throughout the home, Hernandez said in a news release.
Garnier and Toft subsequently sued American Reliable Insurance Co. and its parent company, Global Indemnity, for breach of contract and breach of good faith and fair dealing. Global Indemnity paid out only $5,000 on the sisters’ claim, even though Garnier and Toft had provided contractor estimates that repairs would cost more than $100,000.
Hernandez said the siblings were forced to live in their home without heat for about five years while they battled their insurance company in court. However, in October 2023, Global Indemnity paid the sisters $140,000, the full amount of their policy, claiming the insurance carrier was previously unaware that Garnier and Toft had been living without heat. The company maintained it was an oversight that their insurance adjuster missed, Hernandez said in the news release.
During the trial, defense attorneys argued that Garnier and Toft were difficult to communicate with because they insisted everything had to be in writing and that they would not talk on the phone, Hernandez said.
Hernandez said in the news release that American Reliable and Global Indemnity were repeatedly provided information about Garnier and Toft’s living conditions, but they ignored the information.
“We argued that when you knowingly put a family in an uninhabitable home, you can’t come back later and say you are not responsible for the consequences,” Hernandez said.
Attorneys for American Reliable and Global Indemnity did not respond to requests for comment.