Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

Florist loses case alleging too-high pandemic premiums

Reprints
Florist

A florist failed to go through the appropriate administrative procedures when it filed suit against State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., contending it should have been charged lower insurance premiums because of the pandemic, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, in affirming a lower court ruling.

Alissa’s Flowers Inc., in Independence, Missouri, filed a putative class action suit against State Farm in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Missouri, in May 2020, alleging it had overpaid its premiums to State Farm in light of its “significantly lower exposure rate due to COVID-19,” according to the ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis in Alissa’s Flowers, Inc. v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.

The court dismissed the case, and was affirmed by a three-judge appeals court panel.

State Farm argued that Missouri law required the florist to have brought its claims before the director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, the ruling said.

The panel agreed. The ruling said that under Missouri’s statute, any “aggrieved” individual or entity must first ask the insurer to review the issue, and if there is not adequate relief, file a written complaint with the director, who then pursues the matter.

“Alissa’s Flowers argues that it is challenging premiums - not rates - and thus it need not follow the statutory administrative review process,” the ruling said.

“We conclude that the district court did not conflate the terms ‘rate’ and ‘premium,’ as Alissa’s Flowers contends,” the decision said. The administrative review process set forth in the statute “applies in the commercial insurance context and to Alissa’s Flower’s claims.

“The district court properly determined that Alissa’s Flowers was required to exhaust administrative remedies because the ‘claims, in essence, constitute a challenge to State Farm’s rates,” it said, in citing an earlier order, and affirming the lower court’s decision.

State Farm said in a statement, “We believe the 8th Circuit Court ruled correctly in affirming the dismissal of this case. Still, we know this has been a difficult time for many people, including business owners, and empathize with all those who have suffered amidst COVID-19.”

Plaintiff attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Next