On the same day it acquired a Kansas insurance agency, World Insurance Associates purchased Lock Insurance of Lakeland, Florida.
Lock Insurance, founded in 2004, offers personal and commercial coverage. Don Westerfeld is president. The agency is now known as Lock Insurance, a Division of World Insurance, according to the website. World Insurance already had two agency offices in the Tampa area.
Terms of the Lock deal, which closed in February, were not reported.
World Insurance, based in Iselin, New Jersey, is ranked among the 50 largest agencies. It has some 250 offices in the United States and the United Kingdom, handling commercial and personal lines, bonds, benefits, retirement and human resources products and service, the firm said in a news release. Specialty areas include agribusiness, aviation, cannabis, churches, construction and manufacturing.
What began as a lawsuit filed against Church Mutual Insurance Company on a $1 million-plus claim dispute turned into a potential $2 million award against a contractor after a jury found the contractor intentionally interfered with the insurance contract and caused the litigation.
The case, The Calvary Baptist Church of Denver and Church Mutual Insurance Company V. Skyyguard Corp., came about after it was discovered a contractor orchestrated an inflated appraisal process. That prompted the church to settle with Church Mutual for $50,000 and side with the carrier.
In a counterclaim that played out in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the church sued the contractor for breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation, and the insurer sued for fraud and intentional interference of the insurance contract causing a breach of the misrepresentation clause and punitive damages.
“I think this is the first time, certainly in Colorado, that I’ve seen a claim be brought for intentional interference with the insurance contract for breach of the misrepresentation clause and we were very intentional in how we brought that claim,” said Jeremy Moseley with Spencer Fane, who represented Church Mutual along with attorney Will Brophy.
The jury awarded damages in a May 22 finding to both the church and Church Mutual, and it found that the contractor intentionally interfered with the insurance contract and caused the litigation between the church and insurer.
It awarded $115,000 for the church, $282,000 for fraud to the carrier and awarded $823,000 in punitive damages. The finding requires repayment of the $1.1 million paid on the claim for a total judgment that could exceed $2 million.
One legal expert watching the case sees the case an example abuse in the appraisal process that has become too common.
“This is a perfect example of a building owner being misled by a contractor trying to maximize its profits,” said Steven Badger, an attorney in the Dallas office of Zelle LLP, who has a track record as a defender of insurance companies in disputed weather-related claims. “Building owners just want their damage fixed. And they are led to believe by contractors that the insurance company is being unreasonable in what it is offering.”