Authored by: Ollie Lammers
According to Repairer Driven News, a lawsuit filed in Texas will move forward as a class-action suit against USAA.
The lawsuit alleges that thousands of policyholders had their vehicles deemed total losses without their consent. The customers then had their registrations revoked, and the state titled the vehicles as non-repairable or salvageable.
The class-action stems from a suit filed by a consumer who was in a car accident in 2009 and claimed USAA is responsible for the accident. The plaintiff attempted to have her 1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD repaired. The plaintiff argued the vehicle was valuable because they were restoring it.
USAA appraised the vehicle for $2,728, and the repairs would cost $8,859. The company deemed the vehicle a total loss. The plaintiff disputed the payout and requested $10,700 for the vehicle.
After the plaintiff refused the payout, the company filed an owner retained report with the Texas Department of Transportation. The report tells the state that the vehicle was a total loss, was kept by the owner, and will require a salvage title.
The plaintiff asked USAA to notify the Department of Transportation that their vehicle was not salvageable. Two years later, the company took no action with updating the Department of Transportation report.
The court initially ruled in favor of the company until the appeals process when the court was notified USAA took ownership of the plaintiff’s vehicle.
Discovery during the appeals process revealed it was the company’s procedure to handle claims the same way they handled the plaintiff’s.
For more information on this case, click here to be taken to Repairer Driven News article.
