A Hamilton County jury has awarded a local contractor $14.5 million in his prolonged legal battle with State Farm Insurance
following a 2006 hailstorm that caused severe damage in central Indiana.
Joseph Radcliff, owner of CPM Construction of Indiana in Fishers, received the verdict on Wednesday after he countersued
the Bloomington, Ill.-based insurer in March 2009.
The countersuit responded to an October 2008 complaint from State Farm claiming Radcliff committed fraud to obtain funds
from the insurer by inflicting intentional damage to roofs of its clients to simulate hail and wind damage.
State Farm said Radcliff committed fraud on at least 10 occasions by intentionally damaging property in Indianapolis, Carmel,
Fishers and Noblesville.
According to a former CPM employee, Radcliff commonly told workers that “the only way to make any money is to create
your own damage,” State Farm’s complaint said.
Through its investigation, State Farm provided information about Radcliff to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which forwarded
it to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office brought 14 felony counts
against him in September 2008, which were later dropped.
Radcliff countersued, charging that State Farm slandered and defamed him with its allegations. He further said the former
employee who made the damaging comments to State Farm did so because he was terminated for non-performance.
Radcliff was represented by local attorneys Will Riley of Price Waicukauski & Riley LLC and J. Mark McKinzie of Riley
Bennett & Egloff LLP.
Riley said State Farm’s acts of defamation destroyed the construction company, but the favorable jury verdict “shows
that he’s been vindicated.”
In a written statement, State Farm said it is disappointed in the outcome of the trial.
“We put on [the stand] multiple adjusters, engineers and witnesses in an effort to establish our case,” the company
said. “We believed the evidence supported the actions we took and the causes of action we filed. State Farm will weigh
its options and make its decision on where to go from here in the near future.”
The trial lasted about six weeks. A total of roughly 40 witnesses were called to testify, Riley said.
The April 2006 hailstorm resulted in $1.5 billion in catastrophic insurance claims.
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Contractor wins $14.5M judgment against State Farm
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Doug Henning!
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These guy were thugs — they grew up in freaking Haughville! Smh, sigh. If the mayor needs/wants "quality" Black Hoosiers who are NOT corrupt, give me a call — I know plenty. Land bank info here - http://www.kubepharm.com/indylandbank/IndyLandBank.html
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Magician and illusionist!
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The basic idea of nice apartments with parking and retail is a good one, but this design seems overwhelmingly big/tall for Broad Ripple. The size could be disguised a bit with lots of big trees/landscaping, but the complex is too massive to blend in easily. That section of canal between College and Westfield will also need to be upgraded on both sides. Nice apartments facing onto a nice promenade with shade trees/plantings could bring together the canal towpath/Monon recreation, the outdoor seating at existing restaurants, and this project into something that upgrades the whole area. A plan for the whole stretch makes more sense than facing nice new housing onto what looks like a ditch. Is there a plan? Does the public have input? Who pays? The apartment idea seems to be reasonable, but Whole Foods is not a good idea for appropriate retail. Besides the store being physically too big, there are already Fresh Market at 54xCollege and Whole Foods in Nora for fancy groceries. Good Earth and Kroger are within walking distance of the Shell site. There are at least 7 grocery stores within a safe bike ride. Whole Foods would add nothing but traffic congestion. This design is on the right track, but there needs to be more work done to ensure that it blends in with and enhances the existing community. A project that large will set a tone for that whole part of town. It could be a real asset, but only if done right.
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I did not move to Zionsville to live in Carmel. This and the subsequent developments to follow will ensure a vanilla uniformity of strip malls and apartment buildings as we seek to bring our town down to the least common denominator. We were warned before recent elections that pro-development council members would make sure their friends (landowners and developers) would be able to make their millions off of the exploitation of Zionsville. Why in God's name would we sell out the best preserved small town in the State of Indiana?
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What does State Farm do? Accuse the accuser of fraud to protect its brand. After all, it has to protect itâs clients from fraudulent claims, right? State Farm sent information to the Indianapolis Police Department which led to felony charges being filed against me and CPM Construction. Funny enough not any evidence for my engineers, other contractors that inspected the property before my company, and yes the changed engineering reports that state farm requested to be done. the first ones said not hail damages as they all did at this time in indy but requested them to be changed and now they say " Man Made Damages" funny how the notes were redacted that said to make changes and how the first engineering reports were with held. Those charges were quickly dropped, but the damage to my business and reputation had been done.
Thanks to the work of Mark Mikensey, Joe Williams, Will Riley and other attorneys at both Price, Waicukauski & Riley, LLC and Riley, Bennett and Egloff, I was vindicated when a jury awarded me $14.5 million for defamation. Thatâs right, the claim that my company and myself had committed fraud were FALSE. I had never committed fraud at all but was simply a hard-working contractor swept up in State Farmâs campaign to increase itâs profit margins and create another âexampleâ of how âfraudulentâ claims are destroying businesses.
So next time you hear an insurance company talking about how it works hard to avoid âfrivolous claimsâ and âfights fraud.â Think of me " Joe Radcliff "