Farmers Loses Judgment

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury has ordered Farmers Insurance Group Inc. to pay $9.9 million to two women for failing to defend them when a neighbor was injured by a garage door at their condominium complex.

Retirees Linda Williams, now 65, and B.J. Walker, 80, who share a Los Angeles condo, were sued by neighbor Juanita Wasson after she fell in front of their garage in 2001 and suffered a broken hip. The homeowner association at the complex where all three women live carried liability coverage with Farmers.

Wasson, who was 85 at the time, sued the homeowner association and Williams and Walker for reimbursement of $60,000 in medical bills, including surgery. Wasson alleged that Walker was at fault because she remotely opened her electric garage door before looking to see whether the driveway was clear.

Farmers defended the condo association in the case, but the insurer filed a cross complaint against Walker and Williams alleging that Wasson’s fall was due to Walker’s negligence.

Walker and Williams filed a bad-faith suit against Farmers.

Williams and Walker, who have lived in the complex for 13 years, were worried they would lose their home if they lost their liability case.

The women, who had already maxed out their credit cards to hire a lawyer, borrowed $6,500 more from friends to settle with Wasson for a portion of her medical expenses

“I guarded my credit all my life,” Walker recalled Monday, “but we were just about tapped and I was so scared.”

In a May bench trial, Superior Court Judge James R. Dunn ruled that Farmers had breached its insurance contract by failing to defend the two women.

And in a damages trial that ended Friday, a jury awarded $1.5 million to Walker and Williams for emotional distress, $8.3 million in punitive damages and $52,000 in contract damages.

In a statement, Farmers said, “We ... disagree with the verdict.” The company said it was considering whether to ask for a new trial or to appeal.

Los Angeles-based Farmers is a unit of Zurich Financial Services of Switzerland.

The suit was a “garden variety bad-faith case where the insurance company denies benefits with no justifiable reason for doing so,” said L.A. attorney John Quisenberry, who represented Walker and Williams.

“What’s different is that Farmers knew its actions might cause these women to lose their home.”