The owner of a Missouri collision repair center is seeking $10 million in punitive damages from State Farm, accusing the carrier of aggressively steering business away from his shop.
The tortious interference lawsuit, The Collision Company v. State Farm, was filed in the Circuit Court of Adair County, Missouri. Besides the carrier, the Missouri director of insurance and three individual State Farm agents are named as defendants.
The suit claims that the number of vehicles insured by State Farm and repaired at The Collision Company dropped from 44 in calendar year 2018 to just 10 in the first four months of 2019. The resulting loss of business led to the closing of the shop in July 2019, the owner, Brad Buck, told Repairer Driven News.
The suit claims that the plaintiff’s “willful, intentional and outrageous” conduct justifies the punitive damages sought.
State Farm told Repairer Driven News that it would not comment on the lawsuit.
Robert Molina writes insanely useful guides about the auto body repair process and what you need to know to make the process less stressful. With more than 25 years of experience as an independent auto body shop owner, he’s on a mission to stamp out gobbledygook and raise the bar for quality collision and auto body repairs.
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