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Slammed by Hurricane Charley, then their insurer

When Hurricane Charley roared through town on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004, it peeled the roof off the stucco house at 514 Bond St. and shifted the structure off its foundation. But it was just the start of trouble.

By Tom Zucco, Times Staff Writer
Published October 7, 2007

A hole in Clinton Wiley's ceiling remains three years after Hurricane Charley hit, and mold plagues the home. United Casualty sent $6,600 for repairs and soon canceled his policy, he said. He has no insurance. "I'm worried sick about that."
	[Scott Keeler | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Roosevelt Brady Jr.] Roosevelt Brady lost his sife, Mary, to a heart attack in 2005. He thinks stress and maybe mold took their toll. United Casualty sent $4,883 to repair their badly damaged home, and recently canceled his policy. [Scott Keeler | Times] Craig Lastinger, formerly of United Casualty, shakes hands with Bobby Young outside Young's home in Arcadia. Lastinger wrote many United homeowners policies in Arcadia, including Young's. "The company totally took advantage of these people," Lastinger says. He quit United after 22 years and now works as an independent insurance agent. David Pettinato of the Merlin Law Group in Tampa has filed 43 lawsuits against United Casualty, alleging that claims were underpaid. More suits could be forthcoming, he says.

ARCADIA -- The free calendar the insurance company sent is tacked to the living room wall, alongside a photo of Roosevelt and Mary Brady in happier times, a picture of Jesus and a brownish blotch of mold. Mary spent her last days in this room lying on the sofa, gasping for air. She was 50 when she died of a heart attack in early 2005.

"She never got sick like that," Roosevelt Brady said in a low voice. "I'm not sure if the mold had anything to do with it, but it sure didn't help." They had been together 30 years.

When Hurricane Charley roared through town on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004, it peeled the roof off the stucco house at 514 Bond St. and shifted the structure off its foundation.

United Casualty Insurance Company of America sent Brady a check for $4,883.21 to repair everything. "I put it all right back into the house," he said, "and a whole lot more."

But three years later, the eaves are still exposed, the roof is a patchwork of old and new sheet metal, the floors tilt like a carnival funhouse, the ceilings are sagging and crooked, and mold continues its march along the walls.

Brady, 59 and disabled, keeps the tiny air conditioner in the back bedroom working, but the temperature in the rest of the house is 93.

"I tried the best I could with what they gave me," he said, adding that he paid the $81.82 premium every month, on time, and has the receipts to prove it.

"But United canceled my policy a couple of months ago," he said, alternately laughing and coughing. "They told me I didn't need dwelling anymore.

"Ain't nobody going to give me no insurance now."

Craig Lastinger, the United Casualty agent who sold Brady his policy, looked down at the dirt and apologized again. The two men have been friends for 16 years.

"I cried when I had to take him the check," Lastinger said. "The money didn't even replace the roof. This house should have been bulldozed down."

Lastinger says Brady wasn't the only one who should have gotten more from United Casualty. There are people down the street, and in Wauchula, Ona and other towns that were in Charley's path.

Nearly all of them took their checks for a few thousand dollars and rushed to do whatever they could to repair their homes. Within a month of Charley, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne came calling.

Brady and others have caught the attention of David Pettinato, a lawyer with the Merlin Law Group, a Tampa firm that represents hundreds of Gulf Coast homeowners who are suing insurance companies.

Pettinato has filed 43 breach of contract lawsuits against United Casualty in the past month, alleging that claims were underpaid. The company is not affiliated with United Property and Casualty, one of the top 20 writers of homeowners insurance in Florida.

If Pettinato can prove a general pattern of similar unfair claims handling, he said he will amend the complaint and file multiple bad-faith lawsuits.

"Punitive damages could be a significant number," Pettinato said. "If you look at the dwellings, most are in same condition as after the storm. We want them (United Casualty) to at least pay the policy limits and reimburse each of the policyholders for additional damages."

According to the Florida Department of Financial Services, 89 consumer complaints have been registered against United Casualty from August 2004 through this Sept. 19.

United Casualty denies any wrongdoing and plans to fight the lawsuits.

"We feel none of these cases have any merit and intend to vigorously defend them," said John Camillo, general counsel for United Casualty, adding that the impending litigation prohibits him from commenting on specifics.

"We satisfactorily resolved these claims three years ago," Camillo said, "and we believe these suits have been instigated by a disgruntled ex-employee."

Camillo also said there were no comparisons to unresolved Katrina claims in Mississippi and Louisiana, and he knew of no other similar lawsuits against United Casualty in Florida.

Arcadia, a tiny stopover along State Road 70 between Sarasota and Port St. Lucie, has about 7,000 residents, a median household income of $26,500, and one of the five remaining road prisons in Florida.

It's a world away from the 41-story white marble building at One East Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago that serves as the headquarters of Unitrin, a financial services and insurance provider and the parent company of United Casualty. Unitrin employs 8,400 people and last year reported $3-billion in total revenue and $283-million in net income.

Unitrin's board chairman, Richard C. Vie, earned $4.1-million in salary and other compensation last year, according to Forbes.com.

It is a Unitrin calender that hangs on Roosevelt Brady's living room wall.

Originally licensed in Florida in 1979, United Casualty had about 22,000 policyholders in June 2002. Regulators said it was unclear how many Florida policies United Casualty currently has, and the company would not discuss it.

Although the number of United Casualty policyholders in Florida appears relatively small, they represent a market sometimes overlooked by larger carriers: middle- and low-income people who own modest homes that aren't mortgaged.

Lastinger, 52, said that many of his 100 policyholders couldn't afford to pay a lump sum for a policy from a company like State Farm, Nationwide or Citizens Property. So they turned to United Casualty, which was willing to write them a policy usually for about $50,000 worth of dwelling and contents coverage.

The key was that United Casualty policies allowed homeowners to do something increasingly rare in the property insurance business: pay monthly premiums.

"I'd just go by and see them once a month and collect the $70 or $80 premium," Lastinger said. "A lot of people mailed it in, but I personally collected from many of them. Sometimes we'd sit and talk for an hour. I consider most of them my friends."

The strongest hurricane to hit the United States since Andrew 12 years earlier, Charley was a Category 4 storm that made landfall near Port Charlotte and headed straight for Arcadia, just 25 miles away.

By the time the storm left the state, it had killed 25 people and caused about $7-billion in insured losses.

Lastinger said that after the storm he was told by company officials that he had to adjust claims, although he is not a licensed claims adjuster and had little experience assessing damage.

"It wasn't something I felt comfortable doing," he said. "I told the home office that I wasn't qualified to do that. They told me I had to do it or the claims wouldn't get settled."

After readjusting some of the claims as many as three times and seeing them all rejected, Lastinger said he'd had enough.

"A lot of these folks I trust more than anyone else," he said. "And they trusted me."

A year after Charley hit and 22 years after he started with the company, Lastinger quit. He now works as an independent insurance agent.

Lastinger said he filed a complaint with the state and began to tell people his story. A public adjuster he spoke with called Pettinato, who contacted Lastinger.

As for being disgruntled, Lastinger said he filed for disability benefits with United Casualty and was denied.

But he said that had nothing to do with his decision to speak out, and that he is not challenging United Casualty's ruling.

Down the narrow, bumpy side streets off the highway, some people in Arcadia are still trying to fix what Charley broke -- any way they can.

Sylvia Martin's home for two months after Charley was the front seat of her red 2002 Ford Focus.

"I drove over to my mother's house and slept in her driveway," she said. "I was too ashamed to tell her. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to beg people."

The home on Lincoln Avenue where Martin grew up had lost its roof, and most of her furniture was destroyed. Although she was covered for up to $40,000 on her home and its contents, the check she got from United Casualty was for $3,700.

"I tried to call the insurance company," she said. "They told me the check I got should cover everything."

Her home was finally rebuilt -- by the American Red Cross. The work was finished three weeks ago and Martin is still trying to furnish her home.

"But I thank the Lord I have a home," she said.

Clinton Wiley feels the same, even though there is a hole in his living room ceiling. When Charley hit that Friday, he gathered his family in a hallway and tied everyone together with rope so they wouldn't blow away.

They didn't. But the roof did.

"The insurance company said they'd take care of everything," he said.

United Casualty sent Wiley a check for $6,600, and he says he did everything he could to make repairs. But the roof still sags on one side, and the rain still finds its way inside.

A citrus grove foreman who can clear brush with his bare hands, Wiley thinks it's the mold in his house that's causing his children to catch colds and have trouble breathing.

But he can't move.

"My grandfather built this house in the 1920s," he said. "This is our family home."

A few months after Charley, United canceled his policy, he said.

"So we go without insurance now. We can't afford it. And I'm worried sick about that."

Tom Zucco can be reached at zucco@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8247.

By the numbers

• $7.4-billion -- estimated insured property damage caused by Hurricane Charley in Florida and the Carolinas in 2004.
• 43 -- breach of contract lawsuits against United Casualty for hurricane-damaged homes in Arcadia
• $3-billion -- annual revenue for United Casualty parent Unitrin
• $26,500 -- median household income in Arcadia

[Last modified October 7, 2007, 02:29:33]