Las Vegas jury hits insurance company with $100M verdict

A Las Vegas jury has delivered a $100 million verdict against USAA insurance for a man injured in a car crash.

Timothy Kuhn had sued the auto insurance company over a 2018 crash on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas. According to the complaint, USAA delayed paying Kuhn’s claim for the crash, even though he had a policy for $300,000 in underinsured coverage and had been a policy-holder with the company for 17 years.

“I think the jury felt that $100 million was necessary to hopefully give USAA a wake-up call so they stop cheating Nevada citizens who faithfully paid for insurance,” Kuhn’s attorney, Kimball Jones, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday.

Jones said that $100 million should be a “drop in the bucket” of USAA’s annual revenue, but that he hopes it will be enough to change the company’s behavior.

The insurance company was sued for breach of contract and acting in bad faith, court records show. A jury trial in the case lasted a week and ended Jan. 31.

“We respectfully disagree with the trial outcome, which we believe was not supported by the evidence,” USAA said in a statement. “We will evaluate our legal options and continue to focus on our century-long commitment to serving our members.”

Jones said the company delayed paying Kuhn and used software that reviews claims to “arbitrarily” attempt to pay out a lower amount than Kuhn’s medical bills. Kuhn suffered a brain injury in the crash that continues to affect his memory and executive functioning, Jones said.

The case represents systemic issues with how USAA addresses and pays out insurance claims, he said.

“What they did was really egregious, and it was just part of their system, part of their process,” Jones said. “You could have replaced the adjuster or the manager in the case, basically any two employees, and you were going to get the same result, because that’s the system USAA has set up.”

Robert McLay, an attorney representing USAA, said in closing arguments of the trial that the company has denied having a system or procedure in place to delay payment to insurers, according to court transcripts.

In addition to the punitive damages, the jury awarded Kuhn $7 million in damages against USAA for financial hardship, mental pain, suffering and emotional distress, court records show.

Kuhn initially only filed a lawsuit against the driver who crashed into the back of his car on I-15 in 2018. But then USAA filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, on the side of the driver who caused the crash, Jones said. So the lawsuit was refiled to also list USAA as a defendant.

Jones said intervening in the lawsuit was another method by the company to delay paying Kuhn’s claims for his medical fees. He said Friday that the company hired expert witnesses to testify to “false allegations” about how serious Kuhn’s injuries were.

Attorneys for USAA argued at trial that there are disagreements between experts over Kuhn’s injuries.

“This is a story in conflict,” McLay said in closing arguments. “And it’s a reasonable disagreement as to value. It’s not crystal clear.”

Jones said that USAA paid his client’s claim as the case was preparing to go to trial.

“It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around why someone at USAA didn’t just do the right thing way earlier,” Jones said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.