A Texas civil law firm has filed two lawsuits against a subsidiary of Allstate Insurance company alleging claim abuse in the state.

The law firm Gravely & Pearson filed the suits against Allstate Texas Lloyds, accusing the company of underpaying 400 policyholders in San Antonio. The legal action stems from the recent convictions of Allstate adjuster Chandler Bruton and Allstate construction vendor Rudy Villarreal for committing fraud, which resulted in home damages being improperly fixed and repaired.

According to the law firm's statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has documented hundreds of San Antonio households that had claims handled by Bruton where fraudulent payments were made to Villarreal's company. The money was then kicked back to Bruton. As part of their sentencing, Bruton and Villarreal were ordered to pay back more than $1million in restitution.

The two suits against Allstate allege damage to the homes that Allstate failed to address. According to the filings, Allstate failed to address the damage to the homes and saved millions in claims payouts by shortchanging its homeowners.

Marc E. Gravely, counsel for the plaintiff, said in a statement, “When Bruton and Villarreal were sentenced for their part in the fraud, our clients had hoped that they would have heard from Allstate about additional repairs or had their policy premiums lowered. Neither has happened.”

Allstate responded with the following statement: “The allegations are patently false,” said Joe McCormick, spokesperson for Allstate. “We are committed to fighting fraud and the fraud committed by Mr. Bruton was against Allstate. We were very aggressive about making sure customers who had claims worked on by Mr. Bruton were thoroughly investigated to ensure that they were not impacted by the schemes he had going.”

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Allstate Targeted By Lawsuits

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