Legal Question in Insurance Law in Idaho

I am a farmer and ordered CROP REVENUE INS. for my wheat for 2009. My husband and I had purchased some additional land and opened a 2nd Corp. with me as the owner. I farm the new land, some land I farmed with my huisband previously and 3 leases. My agent (unknown to me) submitted me as a New Producer (a spouse is considered a farmer) and the RMA (Risk Management Agency-arm of the government) rejected the New Producer Status as they ran my social security # and I came up under my husband's farm for the previous years. The rejection was electronically faxed to my agent in time to make the necessary corrections but my agent claims he never received it until 3 months later. It was too late to correct the policy and I did notget the Crop Revenue Coverage. The rejection notice that was faxed on 12/04 and then resent to "Mary" on 3/11 is the critical mistake (other than submitting me as new producer in the first place. I questioned Mary (my agent's partner) about what preceeded her request on 3/11 for a doc. both her and my agent claim they knew nothing about and she said she checked her notes for that day and she knows nothing about it! There is more tothis but this is basically my case. I lost $96,000 due nto not getting what I ordered. I am being told i have to go through arbitration before i can do anything else. i would agree if I had a problem with the policy but I do not. My complaint is with my agent. He is very experienced (28 yrs) with crop insurance but made a critical error and then refuses to take any responsibility, Also, the arbitration is to be filed within one year of being denied on my claim. I haven't been denied on my claim as I was not allowed to make one because I never got the insurance I ordered.What are my options? I have repeatably asked him to have his e and o agent contact me but he has ignored it. I really need some direction.

Thank you,

Kate


Asked on 7/22/10, 9:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Russell L Johnson Johnson and Lundgreen, PC

You did a pretty good job of identifying the issues in your question. Agent liability is a valid claim under the right circumstances, but you have to be able to prove the allegations. This claim is similar to a "malpractice" type of claim. You need to be careful with not missing deadlines, as you are aware. It is possible that getting an attorney involved may help to motivate the agent, but it is also possible that this may require a lawsuit being filed to move forward. If I can help more, please let me know, but this is one that is difficult to solve just with a quick answer.

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Answered on 7/23/10, 8:56 am


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