Indiana Public Adjusters Held Not Personally Liable For Various Torts.

   In the case of Meridian Security Insurance Co. v. Hoffman Adjustment Co., Download Meridian Security Insurance Co. v. Hoffman Adjustment Co. (Ind. Ct. App. Case No. 45A03.0911CV538, Opinion Filed August 18, 2010) PUBLIC ACCESS also published as 2010 WL 3250173 (Ind. Ct. App. August 18, 2010)(Westlaw subscription required to access Westlaw), the Indiana Trial and Appellate Courts held that the Plaintiff Homeowner's Insurance Company did not have available to it the independent torts it alleged against the Public Adjusters in that Case.  The Indiana Court of Appeals held:

(1)  A Public Adjusting Agency could not be personally liable as the Insured's agent, for Tortious Interference with a Preexisting Contractual Relationship because, as the Insureds' agent for presenting their Homeowner's Insurance Claim, its acts were their acts and they could not tortiously interfere with their own contractual relationship, and similarly there was no basis for imposing independent Tort Liability on the Public Adjusting Agency for other torts allegedly committed in the presentation of the Homeowner's Claim, such as actual or constructive Fraud, Breach of Contract, or Failure to Act in Good Faith (even if Indiana Insurance Law were to recognize a reciprocal duty of Good Faith from an Insured to the Homeowner's Insurer, which it does not).  Meridian Security Insurance Co. v. Hoffman Adjustment Co., 2010 WL 3250173 at *4-*5 .

(2)  A Public Adjuster's alleged destruction of evidence did not provide the basis for a Spoliation of Evidence Claim against the Public Adjuster in that case, because Indiana Law had not recognized an independent cause of action for Spoliation of Evidence in a First-Party Case, and further, since a defense based on the alleged Spoliation was available, Equity did not mandate the fashioning of a remedy in that case.  Id. at *5-*6.

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Comments

[Inheritance Adviser]

Thanks for the post, but I doubt that it would have been just to have held the adjuster persanally liable.

[Dennis Wall]

Thanks for your Comment. The facts of the case may make all the difference.