A jury has awarded a record-setting claim for overtime for a class of Farmers Insurance Adjusters in the final amount of $90,009,208 for overtime pay in a class action suit in Oakland.
More than 2,000 adjusters working for Farmers Insurance Exchange came out with the award following five years of litigation in recovering an overtime fund to be divided among themselves. Farmers is also liable for prejudgment interest, thought to be more than $30,000,000, along with the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs.
Two years ago, the Superior Court in Oakland ruled that the claims adjusters were not exempt administrators and therefore were eligible for overtime pay. In March of this year, the Court of Appeal went ahead with the Superior Court’s ruling and in June, the California Supreme Court turned down a hearing in the matter.
The jury’s verdict allocates payments for the 2,402 claims adjusters for their unpaid overtime from October 1, 1993 to June 26 of this year, which was the trial date. The class members represented in the case were all personal lines claims representatives who processed auto and homeowners insurance claims. The more than 2,000 members make up about 1/3 of Farmers’ California workforce.
The claims adjusters are also asking the Court to order Farmers to begin immediately paying overtime and keeping the needed time records to do so. The Court is expected to rule on these issues over the next several weeks.
Topics California Claims Agribusiness
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