![]() ![]() ![]() Neal Conolly, president of Wright National Flood, said that Hernemar never should have blamed the structural damage on the storm because the foundation was buried in sand during his first visit. He estimated his reports were significantly altered four or five times during peer reviews. “Then Kaible pulls out a phone and takes a picture,” Kelly said.ĭuring a hearing last month, Hernemar testified that he conducted roughly 50 inspections for U.S. The engineer, George Hernemar, said he didn’t - then pulled out his original unedited report, Kelly said. When he arrived at the house, Ramey’s husband, Bob Kaible, asked the engineer why he blamed the damage on erosion, according to Kelly. Wright agreed, and the first engineer returned. ![]() Ramey and Raisfeld, whose policy limit was $250,000, were furious, said Kelly, a former Long Beach city councilman. Rather, the company offered Ramey and Raisfeld about $80,000. The unsigned changes by the second engineer, the judge said, “journeyed beyond misleading into the realm of misrepresentation.”īecause the report blamed erosion rather than flooding, Wright refused to cover any structural repairs, which accounted for the bulk of the house’s estimated $205,000 in damages. Rather, it was passed to a second engineer for a “peer review.” That second engineer - who never visited the house - rewrote the report, and attributed the damage to erosion, the judge wrote. That report, however, was never released. ![]() He inspected the house, told the owners the damage was clearly from flooding - then wrote a report saying the storm surge overwhelmed the foundation, according to the judge and Denis Kelly, a lawyer for Ramey and Raisfeld. Forensics after he answered a Craigslist ad. Trained in Sweden, the engineer was hired by U.S. They filed a flood-insurance claim, saying their floors shifted during the surge. The homeowners who filed the suit, Deborah Ramey and her stepfather, Larry Raisfeld, have a house about one block from the beach. The ruling arises from one of the more than 1,000 lawsuits filed in federal court by Long Island policyholders who say they were underpaid for flood insurance claims after Sandy. Forensics LLC, said the company “respectfully disagrees” with the judge’s decision. An attorney for the engineering firm, U.S. The insurer, Wright National Flood Insurance Co., plans to appeal the ruling. “This ruling breaks open one of the chronic issues that has hobbled policyholders,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policy Holders, a nonprofit in San Francisco that assists insurance policyholders. Engineering and adjusting reports are the bedrock of many claim denials, and Brown’s ruling, they say, could throw them into question. The ruling sets a 30-day deadline for all insurance companies being sued by Sandy victims to release copies of any notes, reports, pictures and other draft materials from engineering and adjusting reports.Īdvocates and lawyers for homeowners say the move could have a sweeping impact on hundreds of Long Island Sandy victims who have lawsuits pending against insurers. “Worse yet, evidence suggests that these unprincipled practices may be widespread,” Brown wrote in his order, issued Nov. In a 27-page order, Magistrate Judge Gary Brown said an engineering firm hired by one of the nation’s largest flood insurance companies secretly rewrote a report to wrongly claim that a house in Long Beach was damaged by long-term erosion, rather than the storm. A federal judge on Long Island has ordered insurance companies to release thousands of documents used to deny superstorm Sandy flood claims, saying it appears engineers falsified reports to avoid paying homeowners. ![]()
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