The insurer was accused of not paying enough to cover needed repairs to vehicles.
Parker’s Classic Auto Works filed a lawsuit against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, an Ohio-based company, in 2015. Following a recent two-day jury trial in Rutland Superior Court, a jury awarded the auto shop $41,737.
The case is part of an ongoing campaign by Parker’s Classic Auto Works over the years involving similar claims against other insurance company for collision repairs.
Parker’s website has a section in which more than a dozen of radio ads highlight the company’s approach to dealing with insurance companies. The ads include names like, “Your Car, Your Choice,” “Don’t Be Fooled,” and “Adjusters Say The Darndest Things.”
Mike Parker, the owner of the auto shop on Chaplin Avenue in Rutland, said Friday that he and his attorney, Robert McClallen of Rutland, would not comment on the matter at this time.
Parker brought the suit against Nationwide on behalf of consumers in cases where the insurer denied to pay the full amount for repairing vehicles.
The practice is called “short-pay.”
In the Nationwide case, Parker sued seeking a little more than $51,000 in denied payments. The lawsuit lists more than 70 names of individuals who sought payment for vehicle repairs.
In those cases, the lawsuit states, Nationwide failed “to pay the full amount of the repair to the insured.”
“Each insured, in consideration of being able to take possession of his or her vehicle, assigned (Parker’s) the right to proceed against (Nationwide) in order to collect the amount due and owing for repair of the insured vehicle,” the lawsuit states.
Parker’s website said the shop has broken away from a “direct repair program,” that the company says “become subject to insurance company demands such as the repair of parts that should be replaced, using after-market parts, or salvaged parts.”
The website adds, “In our experience, these practices are done to improve the bottom line of the insurance company and offer no benefit or savings to the consumer. In fact, such actions can adversely affect the safety and value of the vehicle.”
Eric T. Boron, a Buffalo, New York, attorney, listed in court records as lead counsel for Nationwide, could not be reached Friday for comment. James W. Coffrin, a Burlington lawyer listed as the local counsel for Nationwide, could also not be reached Friday for comment.
Nationwide, in court records, denied owing the money to Parker’s auto shop and had asked a judge throw out the case.
‘Nationwide fully satisfied each and every obligation it had to Parker’s purported assignors, and Nationwide has no further obligation to Parker’s assignors or (Parker) and, therefore, this action must be dismissed,” according to Nationwide’s answer to the lawsuit that also listed 23 possible defenses to the legal action.
Parker, in a story posted last year on autobodynews.com, said filing lawsuits against insurers is a time sink for auto shops.
“This isn’t something you can just jump into,” Parker told the website. “A shop would have a lot of work to do prior to filing their first suit, but we’ve collected on every suit we’ve filed.”
Parker prevailed in 2015 in a three-year fight against Allstate for $53,000 in a lawsuit he brought on behalf of 70 consumers.
