A DFW area (Weatherford) widow and resident of Texas, recently got a good settlement involving a credit life insurance policy.
In 2005 a man went into a local car dealership to buy a new truck. After the down payment and trade-in he financed a little over $27,000 on the truck. While closing the deal with the finance manager at the dealership he was asked to purchase a credit life policy covering the debt on the truck and he did. This type of policy is suppose to pay any remaining debt on the loan. A year later he died and the debt on the truck remained at about $23,000.
His widow applied for benefits to pay off the truck and was denied. The stated reason for denial was that her husband had lied about his medical conditions on the application for insurance. He had died from a cause that was asked about on the application. The application had a box checked wherein he was stating he had never had that medical problem, and it was signed by him. The insurance company sent a copy of the application with the box checked and the husbands signature, to his widow.
Here was the problem: The widow had her copy of the application wherein the box was not checked. As a result, it was obvious that someone with the insurance company or the car dealership had checked the box at a later date.
The widow had sought the help of an attorney who did not regularly practice Insurance Law. Right before trial the attorney insisted that the widow settle for $10,000 which the insurance company was offering. He told her she would never get more. She refused and sought another attorney.
She came to Insurance Attorney Mark humphreys who immediately re-sued the insurance company, the car dealership, and the finance manager for violations of the Texas Insurance Code, Deceptive Trade Practices, Breach of Contract, fraud, negligence, and other causes of action.
The case settled 4 months later for 6 figures.