California IN BRIEF : BEN LOMOND : Suits Filed Over Quake Insurance

About 30 class-action lawsuits have been filed in Santa Cruz County, complaining that insurance companies carrying earthquake insurance have weaseled out of adequate payoffs for damages from the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake. “People are being cheated out of millions of dollars,” said Ina DeLong, 47, who quit her insurance company job to fight her former bosses. Ben Lomond lawyer David Cooper added: “On one side you have big-time insurance companies with unassailable reputations for giving people a helping hand. And on the other side you have some little people who already have had the stuffing knocked out of them, and now they’re getting it again.” State Farm denied the charge, adding that of more than 27,000 claims totaling $120 million, State Farm had received only 28 complaints.