Important Update: Following the hearing on December 11, 2020, the Court entered a final order approving the settlement. A copy of the Final Order can be downloaded from the Important Documents page.
What is this settlement about?
In this lawsuit, the Plaintiff claims that when certain automobiles sustain damage to their structural systems and bodies, they cannot be fully repaired to their pre-accident condition, causing the vehicles to suffer a loss in value called “diminished value.” Plaintiff alleges that Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance Company and Enumclaw Property and Casualty Insurance Company ("MOE") failed to pay or pay adequately for this type of loss under its Washington insurance policies’ UMPD coverage, and that such an alleged failure to pay is a breach of MOE’s automobile insurance contracts. MOE denies that it did anything wrong.
Am I a Class Member?
You are a member of the Class if MOE paid to have your insured vehicle repaired under the UIM PD provision of an MOE policy issued in Washington; and
- the repair estimate on your vehicle (including any supplements) totaled at least $1,000; and
- your vehicle was no more than six years old (model year plus five years) and had less than 90,000 miles on it at the time of the accident; and
- your vehicle suffered structural (frame) damage and/or deformed sheet metal and/or required body or paint work.
You are not a part of the Class if, at the time of your accident, (a) your vehicle was leased, (b) your vehicle was declared a total loss, or (c) your covered accident was before November 25, 2013.
What does the settlement provide?
Each Class Member who submits a valid claim form will receive a payment that will depend on his or her vehicle repair costs. Here’s how it works: each Class Member is entitled to request a payment. For Class Members who qualify for a payment, that payment will be calculated as the Class Member’s repair cost times the portion of the Settlement paid to Class Members (i.e., $1,386,000.00 minus attorneys’ fees and costs and incentive payments to the Class Representative) divided by the aggregate value of all Class Members’ repair costs, less any past payments for diminished value to the Class Member.
Not everyone who receives this Notice will be eligible for payment. The average payment for qualified Class Members will likely be in the range of several hundred dollars per Class Member, depending on how much, if any, payment for diminished value the claimant has already received. You can only receive your share of the Settlement if you submit a Valid Claim Form by January 25, 2021.