State Farm halts new homeowners insurance in Miss

[133724]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. said it will stop writing new policies for homeowners and businesses in Mississippi following a legal battle over damage claims there from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

"It is no longer prudent for us to take on additional risk in a legal and business environment that is becoming more unpredictable," Bob Trippel, senior vice president of the largest home insurer in the United States, said in a statement on Wednesday.

snip

One industry expert said the avalanche of legal claims State Farm faced following a controversy over whether homes were devastated by floods, for which they weren't insured, or wind, for which they were, may have been the deciding factor.

"Hurricanes can be insured against, but litigation can't," said Robert Hartwig, head of the Insurance Information Institute, which provides insurance statistics. "Those costs are extremely high."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-02-15T003408Z_01_N14353960_RTRUKOC_0_US-STATEFARM-MISSISSIPPI.xml&src=rss

[lonestarnot]

1. They should run those bastards out of the country on a rail.

[Doctor Panacea]

2. Yeah!

But I guess that would take them right into the Gulf of Mexico! :)

[lonestarnot]

5. so long as their gone.

[alarimer]

3. They take money in the form of premiums for years

and refuse to pay out when disaster strikes. Not surprisingly, they get sued and lose. So now they take their toys and go home? How much money did they make out of these premiums and the investments from that money? See, I think insurance companies are just about the most evil in the world (well other than oil companies and tobacco companies and, well, pretty much every other one). This is what is wrong with capitalism. Unfettered greed. I did not join in any of the threads that were either pro or anti capitalism but I think there have to be better systems than what we have.

[Rainscents]

4. Like good neighbor... State Farm is there. NOT!