Eddie Quintela, owner and operator of Collision Concepts in Delray Beach, Fla., has levied a lawsuit against Bristol West Insurance Company on behalf of his customer whose vehicle was damaged due to the negligence of a Bristol West policyholder.

Bristol West allegedly denied payments for the repairers’ posted labor rates and several processes and procedures deemed necessary to properly restore the customer’s vehicle. Such charges included road testing, water/dust/wind intrusion/leak check and labor rate differences.

“The interesting thing in all this is that we have received payment for all these issues before from both Farmers Insurance Group and 21st Century Insurance (formerly AIG) which, along with Bristol West, are owned and operated under their mothership, Zurich Financial Services," said Quintela. "Farmer’s acquired Bristol West Insurance Group in 2007 and it serves as their product for high-risk drivers. In light of these companies having provided payment in the past, I doubt seriously a judge and jury will find Bristol West’s refusal and failure to provide ample consideration for reasonable and necessary repairs to their policyholder’s victims the least bit acceptable. But I do look forward to finding out.

“Since we could not agree to settle the outstanding balance on this claim, I have instructed my legal counsel, Mr. Brent Geohagan, to file all necessary paperwork to proceed with legal action against Bristol West’s policyholder. I wish we could have saved both our companies the sure-to-follow legal fees we will both incur, but we believe our customers are worth the effort and they appreciate our attention to quality and our standing up for them, and we’ll continue to do so.”