"In Landmark Class Action, Farmers Insurance Sues Local Governments For Ignoring Climate Change"

[Skidmore]

Just found this article. Perhaps this suit will nudge government at all levels to start planning. Politicians understand money.


In Landmark Class Action, Farmers Insurance Sues Local Governments For Ignoring Climate Change

BY ARI PHILLIPS MAY 19, 2014 AT 12:51 PM UPDATED: MAY 19, 2014 AT 1:34 PM

CREDIT: AP/ M. SPENCER GREEN

Last month, Farmers Insurance Co. filed nine class-action lawsuits arguing that local governments in the Chicago area are aware that climate change is leading to heavier rainfall but are failing to prepare accordingly. The suits allege that the localities did not do enough to prepare sewers and stormwater drains in the area during a two-day downpour last April. In what could foreshadow a legal reckoning of who is liable for the costs of climate change, the class actions against nearly 200 Chicago-area communities look to place responsibility on municipalities, perhaps spurring them to take a more forward-looking approach in designing and engineering for a future made different by climate change.

“Farmers is asking to be reimbursed for the claims it paid to homeowners who sometimes saw geysers of sewage ruin basement walls, floors and furniture,” reported E&E News. “The company says it also paid policyholders for lost income, the cost of evacuations and other damages related to declining property values.”


Andrew Logan, an insurance expert with Ceres, told E&E News that there is likely a longer-term agenda in mind with this latest effort, and that the company “could be positioning itself to avoid future losses nationwide from claims linked to floods, sea-level rise and even lawsuits against its corporate policyholders that emit greenhouse gases.”

While these suits are the first of their kind, Micahel Gerrard, director of the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in New York, told Reuters that there will be more cases like them attempting to address how city and local governments should manage budgets to prepare for natural disasters that have been intensified by climate change.

more...

[randome]

1. Wow. But it makes sense.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[Skidmore]

2. It does. I hate to have to give props to the insurance industry

but it looks like they are trying to be out in front on this one.

[RobertEarl]

5. They've been in the background

And their losses have now forced them to the forefront. They have people that do nothing but figure out what's going to happen in the future and those people have been telling the bosses for years that global warming is coming and the companies stand to lose big time.

Insurance companies are not science deniers. But they are full of PR... well science wins again!!

[The Blue Flower]

3. You just beat me to it

I just saw this, too. Let's hope it's a game changer. I've been wondering why the insurance companies have been so slow to see the ramifications of ignoring such a deteriorating situation.

[gcomeau]

4. Normally I'd be disdainful of insurance company attempts to avoid liability...

...but in this case, I can't help but think it would be a good thing if every state and local government in the country got a nasty wake-up call if they won this.

[postulater]

6. Oh, this is gonna be good. Hit em in the profits.

Hope it works!

[leftyohiolib]

7. if they win and you city has to put in bigger pipes your taxes will go up

[Skidmore]

8. That happens anyway. And some cities should have put in new

pipes long ago. Likewise, there are some areas in which homes and businesses should not build any longer unless infrastructure is in place to protect them from extreme weather.

[leftyohiolib]

10. no it doesnt happen anyway otherwise we wouldnt have this problem now

[Skidmore]

12. Taxes don't get raised when new pipes are installed in a city?

We have this problem now because corporations and the politicians they own have tried to avoid keeping infrastructure in repair and have ignored scientists' warnings about climate change. I think we are skirting on the edge of too little too late.

[malaise]

9. Very good news

Over the weekend I heard that in California because of the drought conditions Jerry Brown's administration had hired 300 more firemen. One homeowner said many homes (including his) were saved because of additional resources.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. Never in my WILDEST dreams would I have imagined the insurance companies, with a simple

move like filing a liability lawsuit action, would be THE THING that snaps idiots and deniers and propagandists to their senses regarding climate change.

This is a eureka moment for mankind! Insurance companies! Well, I'll be damned. They may have just literally changed the world for the better.