Marine awarded $3.6 million

A jury Tuesday awarded $3.6 million to a Marine captain serving in Iraq after concluding that a nationwide company that specializes in insuring military personnel tried to cheat him out of coverage for water damage to his Oceanside home.

The San Diego County Superior Court jury found that the United Services Automobile Assn.’s Casualty Insurance Co. had attempted to defraud John Colombero in its handling of his 2004 claim.

Colombero was awarded $84,000 to fix the water damage, $50,000 for emotional damages and $3.5 million in punitive damages.

Ricardo Echeverria, the attorney representing Colombero, said the case “showed a pattern and practice of looking for ways to deny coverage.”

The most telling piece of evidence, Echeverria said, was that the experts the insurance company used to examine Colombero’s claim were the same ones it had used in hundreds of other cases. In almost all those cases, he said, the damage was not covered.

In Colombero’s case, the issue was whether the water came from burst pipes, a situation covered by the policy, or from bad drainage or defects, which the company asserted was not the cause.

The Los Angeles firm of Daniels, Fine, Israel and Schonbuch, which is representing the insurance company, did not respond to a request for comment.

Echeverria said he expects an appeal.

Colombero, wearing civilian clothes, testified early in the trial – but he deployed to Iraq on his third tour days before the verdict. He is assigned to a reconnaissance battalion.

After the verdict, he talked to jurors by phone to thank them.

“He just hopes this doesn’t happen to another Marine,” Echeverria said.

Jurors had not been informed during the trial that Colombero was deploying to Iraq.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Nugent had ruled that they could not be told lest that make them more sympathetic to his case.

Texas-based United Services Automobile Assn., which was founded by Army officers in 1922, specializes in insurance, banking and brokerage services for active-duty and retired military personnel.

tony.perry@latimes.com