Insurance Company Gets Caught Cheating

The insurance company in this headline does business in all of Texas, including Weatherford, Grand Prairie, Arlington, Mansfield, Fort Worth, and Dallas. This story originates out of Ohio.
The Columbus Dispatch published an article on March 10, 2010 titled, “Nationwide Lawsuit Settled For $6 Million”. The lawsuit was a case filed in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court in 2005. In the lawsuit, it is alleged that Nationwide collected more than the maximum annual premiums outlined in their term-life insurance policies. This atleast is what court documents say. The allegations include accusing Nationwide of fraud and violating State of Ohio consumer protection laws. More than likely, these Ohio consumer protection laws are similar in many ways to the Texas consumer laws found in the Texas Business & Commerce Code and known as the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
A Nationwide spokeswoman declined commenting on the case and the settlement. Further, Nationwide, in agreeing to the settlement, is not admitting to any wrongdoing. Nationwide claims to be entering into the settlement agreement to avoid any additional expense, inconveniences, burdens, and distractions associated with the lawsuit.
The Columbus Dispatch article says the agreement has Nationwide paying out $6 million dollars as a settlement. It also says that the number of current and former Nationwide term-life insurance customers who are receiving the settlement is 230,000. The article says the average payout is $47. $47 times 230,000 policy holders equals $10,800,000. It is also noteworthy that there is no mention of the attorneys fees involved in the settlement which is likely in the millions nor is there any mention of the cost involved which could reasonably be at or near a million dollars.