[StBernard] Lawmakers want State Farm records

[Westley Annis]

GULFPORT - An investigation into State Farm's Hurricane Katrina claims
practices could be just beginning rather than ending.
 
Attorney General Jim Hood said Friday morning that U.S. Reps. Gene Taylor
and Bennie Thompson, both Democrats from Mississippi, sent him a letter
about his criminal investigation of State Farm Property and Casualty Co.
 
"They're coming after my records," Hood said.
 
Hood's office has been investigating State Farm for more than a year. Two
State Farm whistle-blowers who helped adjust claims also turned over to his
office more than 15,000 pages of documents.
 
State Farm has denied any wrongdoing. Company representatives say they
cooperated with Hood's investigation. Hood ended the investigation earlier
this week, after State Farm agreed to revisit policyholder claims that were
denied or possibly underpaid in areas hit by storm surge.
 
Policyholders and Hood believe the company abandoned its duty to thoroughly
investigate wind claims, blaming Katrina's unprecedented surge for damage
paid by the National Flood Insurance Program.
 
In 105 cases, Hood said, State Farm ordered more than one engineering report
on destroyed properties when the first reports failed to agree with the
company's position that water caused the destruction. The company stopped
ordering new engineering reports for properties, and canceled those that had
not been completed, less than two months after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005,
company officials have admitted in court documents.
 
Hood said he did not know if he could share Taylor and Thompson's letter.
Thompson's press office has not returned telephone calls from the Sun Herald
to comment on the investigation. Taylor could not immediately be reached to
comment.
 
Thompson heads the House Homeland Security Committee. Hood said Taylor and
Thompson are working with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., head of the House
Financial Services Committee, which oversees insurance. Frank's office has
announced a review of post-Katrina industry practices, saying the goal is to
make sure the insurance system is working and people are able to rebuild
their lives.
 
Homeland Security, which oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, has
been directed to investigate Katrina claims payments through a measure by
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott.
Both Lott and Taylor are State Farm policyholders, but they say they are
acting on behalf of constituents harmed. Around 9,000 State Farm
policyholders had property subject to Katrina's wind and storm surge.