Nationwide Class Action / Credit Insurance
05/16/2007 - Confidential
Perkins v. American National Insurance Company, United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia. Unearned premium refunds due as a result of early termination of insured loans. Butler Prather LLP served as co-class counsel with Ben B. Philips of Philips & Branch in Columbus in a class action settlement which was preliminarily approved by Judge Clay Land on May 16, 2007. Most such settlements in the past have been on a “claims made” approach.
Class counsel conceived a different approach calculated to identify more insureds due refunds and locate them. In this case American National has agreed and has been ordered to create a database of information about potential class members with all information necessary to identify those insureds who may be entitled to unearned premium refunds. American National will contact its dealers and its insureds’ lenders to determine the loan termination date for each insured covered during the applicable states’ statutes of limitation. That information will enable American National to identify those insureds due refunds.
The settlement process will be audited by Rust Consulting, a national settlement administration firm.