State Farm is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly failing to foot the bill for the repair of high value luxury vehicles.
The lawsuit, filed in Broward County, Florida on May 18, stems from the insurer’s “systemic and wrongful practice of refusing to pay for the proper and necessary collision repairs of its insureds’ high-value, luxury automobiles, in accordance with policy terms.”
“In that regard, State Farm made it part of their business model to deny necessary collision benefits by refusing to pay appropriate hourly labor rates for high-value luxury vehicles,” the lawsuit said.
It was filed after Ada Sasson, whose all-electric 2022 Porche Taycan was insured with State Farm for more than $100,000, sustained damage in a May 27, 2022 collision, according to the lawsuit.
Sasson brought her vehicle to a Porche dealership, where she was referred to a local Porche-certified collision shop for repairs, as required to preserve the vehicle’s warranty and ensure the work was completed per the OEM’s specifications.
The lawsuit said that the body shop Sasson was referred to specializes in repairing high-value luxury vehicles and performs repairs for numerous insurance companies willing to pay its hourly rates that “represent the prevailing competitive prices.”
It added that the shop, Stuttgart International, created an estimate of repairs for $8,360.87, but said it was rejected by State Farm.
“State Farm created its own estimate of damages to the insured vehicle in the amount of $6,267.03 (based on alternative labor hourly rates that are not the prices charged in the repair market of certified facilities) and offered to pay only that amount for repair to the vehicle, less a $500 deductible,” the lawsuit said.
“Plaintiffs did not approve or agree to the amount of State Farm’s estimate. And State Farm did not approve the repair estimate provided by Plaintiffs from Stuttgart, despite that Plaintiffs were entitled to have the insured vehicle restored to its ‘pre-loss condition’ which required the collision repairs to be performed by a certified facility. That would assure that the work was properly performed to manufacturer specifications (including all safety systems) and preserve the manufacturer’s original factory warranty.”
It said Sasson was ultimately forced to pay the difference between State Farm’s estimate and the actual cost of properly repairing the vehicle.
A breach of contract lawsuit was initially filed against State Farm in August 2022, however, the plaintiff’s lawyers said they found during discovery that State Farm has been “utilizing a consistent, yet non-compliant company practice for the determination of collision benefits on high value vehicles which fails to honor the requirements of the State Farm auto policy.”
Consequently, Plaintiffs seek leave to amend the complaint to assert a class action pursuant to Rule 1.220(c) on behalf of hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of State Farm automobile policy owners who insure their high value luxury cars with State Farm and have been similarly damaged,” the lawsuit says.
The class lawsuit applies to all State Farm automobile policy owners (non-commercial) with a covered collision claim after Sept. 1, 2018 involving an insured high-value luxury vehicle, where coverage was denied for the hourly labor rates of a manufacturer’s certified facility.
“[The] defendant has handled thousands of automobile insurance claims for collision damage to high value luxury vehicles, including those manufactured by Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, Bentley, BMW, and Land Rover, but failed to pay to have repairs performed by manufacturer certified facilities,” the lawsuit says. “The identity and precise number of class members is exclusively known by the Defendant and can be easily ascertained from Defendant and its records during discovery.”
When asked to comment on the case, State Farm spokesman Roszell Gadson said: “We have nothing to share with Repairer Driven News.”
However, Gadson did provide a brief comment to Law.com.
“The filing of a lawsuit does not substantiate the allegations within the complaint,” he said. “We’ve recently learned of the filing, therefore it’s premature to comment at this time.”