Jury selected for homeowner’s Katrina lawsuit against Allstate

NEW ORLEANS – Allstate Insurance Co. owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Louisiana couple who lost their home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the couple’s lawyer told an eight-member federal jury Monday.
Acknowledging that Robert and Merryl Weiss have already received more than $350,000 in insurance payments, attorney Richard Trahant opened arguments in the Weisses’ lawsuit against Allstate by telling the jury Allstate owes a lot more.
“The purpose of insurance is to make people whole. My clients have not even been made half,” Trahant said.
The Weiss lawsuit is believed to be only the second homeowners’ suit over Katrina damage to be tried in a Louisiana federal court.
At issue in this and other cases is whether damage was caused by wind or storm flooding. In Monday’s arguments opening the Weiss case, each side accused the other of misrepresentation.
Saying testimony would “shatter everything you think about that Good Hands logo,” Trahant said Allstate misrepresented part of the Weisses’ claim to the federal flood insurance program, planning for the federal program to pick up a substantial portion of the cost.
Allstate lawyer Judy Barrasso argued that it was the Weisses who misrepresented their claim. She touched on allegations already made in court papers that the couple demanded that the company pay them at least $34,000 for a boathouse that Allstate says wasn’t located on the insured property when Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005.
Barrasso also questioned why the couple accepted flood insurance money estimated in court papers at around $350,000 if they thought their damage was caused by wind.
“If that was a mistake, wouldn’t they tell somebody?” Barrasso asked.
The couple’s insurance agent, David Martin, was among the first group of witnesses to take the stand Monday. He testified that he doesn’t have any reason to suspect that the Weisses misrepresented their claim.
The jury also heard testimony from Bill Dekemel, who was paid in full by Allstate for damage to a home about 100 feet from the Weisses.