A Massachusetts federal judge has ruled that an “unfair insurance practices suit” will go forward. It was alleged that Sedgwick Claims Management Systems Inc. failed to make a reasonable settlement offer before or after an underlying $16 million verdict was returned in a nursing home death case. U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris denied a summary judgment motion in a suit brought by the family of Genevieve Calandro, who died in 2008 at a nursing home.
In the underlying suit, the Calandro family said the nursing home was negligent and caused the resident’s death. Sedgwick, the claims adjuster and administrator for a Hartford Insurance Group subsidiary that insured the nursing home company, failed to make a prompt, fair and equitable settlement offer under Massachusetts’ consumer-focused insurance laws.
The Calandros are represented by David J. Hoey, Krzysztof G. Sobczak and Allan Galbraith. The case is Garrick Calandro as administrator of the estate of Genevieve Calandro v. Sedgwick Claims Management Services (case number 1:15-cv-10533-PBS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Source: Law360.com