A jury in Comanche County, Ok., handed down a multi-million-dollar judgment against Farmers Insurance Company Sept. 17 as part of a class-action lawsuit. The penalties against Farmers break down as follows: $50 million in actual damages and $30 million in punitive damages, plus interest, which could push the total judgment to $200 million.
The suit, filed in 2001 on behalf of 76,000 Oklahoma policyholders, contended that Farmers had wrongfully withheld millions of dollars in claims that should have been paid to policyholders. The case reached the jury this month, and a judgment was reached after two weeks of testimony and five hours of deliberation.
