CHARLESTON — A Beckley woman alleges an insurance company and its adjuster wrongfully denied her insurance claim after her home became uninhabitable when a basement foundation wall collapsed.
In her suit filed in the Kanawha Circuit Court, Ethel Winkler alleges breach of contract, common law bad faith and breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair trade practices against the defendants Erie Insurance Property & Casualty Co. and its adjuster Charles Long.
According to the suit, a basement foundation wall collapsed in the plaintiff's home in September 2018 and the home was insured by a policy issued by Erie. Winkler alleges her claim was denied after an inspector stated the wall collapse was due to wall not being attached to the floor framing.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants ignored that the policy expressly provides for coverage of damages that result from hidden decay.
"...defendants Erie and Long wrongfully misrepresented the terms of the Erie policy, and misrepresented that the cause of the collapse of the basement foundation wall of the home was not covered under the Erie Policy," she alleges in her suit.
Winkler seeks compensatory and punitive damages, litigation costs as well as pre- and post-judgment interest. She is represented by Brent Kesner and Ernest G. Hentschel II of Kesner & Kesner PLLC in Charleston and Charles Webb of The Webb Law Centre PLLC in Charleston.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Charles E. King.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 19-C-865