Disappointed Miss. Couple Unlikely to Appeal Low Katrina Award

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A Mississippi couple whose lawsuit over Hurricane Katrina damage to their home ended with a jury verdict that favored the insurance company said they have no plans to file an appeal in the case.

An eight-member jury ordered USAA Casualty Insurance Co. to pay an additional $64,000 to policyholders David and Marilyn Aiken for wind damage to their Pass Christian, Miss., home and its contents during the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.

But that amount was only a fraction of the maximum $427,087 that jurors could have awarded to the Aikens for wind coverage under their USAA homeowner policy.

After the verdict, which capped a 10-day trial, U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. refused to let jurors consider punitive damages against USAA. Senter said “there is no substantial evidence that USAA was acting in bad faith” when it denied most of the Aikens’ claim.

David Aiken, 54, said that he doesn’t expect to file an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. An appeal would be costly and would face long odds in a court that already has sided with insurers in several other Katrina cases, Aiken said of the 5th Circuit.

“I can’t keep up with the monies of the insurance companies. I can’t match them,” he said.

USAA spokesman David Snowden said the company is pleased with the jury’s verdict.

“At USAA, we investigate every claim thoroughly,” Snowden said. “We are pleased that the court acknowledged our legitimate efforts to find the cause of the damage and that the court concluded we had a justifiable reason for our claims decision.”

Aiken, an orthopedist, and his wife live in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, La. They used the Pass Christian property as a vacation home and had planned to retire there, but Aiken said the recent verdict means they won’t have enough money to rebuild.

“The real losers are the homeowners of Mississippi,” he added.

USAA already has paid the couple $178,204 for wind damage under the homeowner policy, which had total coverage limits of $582,750 for the dwelling and its contents. The couple also had a separate, federally subsidized flood policy that paid them $278,000.

The Aikens had accused San Antonio-based USAA and a Houston engineering firm, Rimkus Consulting Group Inc., of conspiring to deny the couple’s damage claim.

In their lawsuit, the Aikens say a Rimkus engineer initially concluded Katrina’s winds were strong enough to destroy the home. But the couple claims a Rimkus team leader later revised the report to “mollify the language,” so their claim could be denied by USAA.

However Judge Senter dismissed Rimkus as a defendant in the case during the middle of the trial. Senter ruled the Aikens failed to meet their burden of showing that Rimkus acted with gross negligence or malice.