A jury in Mahoning County, Ohio has determined that Nationwide Insurance must pay former agent Christine Lucarell $42.8 million in damages related to charges that the insurer breached its contract with Lucarell and fraudulently misrepresented the terms of her employment.
The complaint claims that Nationwide recruited Lucarell and other agents and then reneged on promises to provide resources and training, and set increasingly "unrealistic quotas" for the agents to hit, all as part of a plan to terminate the agents and profit from their books of business.
Nancy Smeltzer, communication consultant with Nationwide, says the insurer plans to appeal the Nov. 5 verdict. "The jury was not allowed to deliberate all the facts. We believe when all the facts are put on the table, it would substantially change the outcome," says Smeltzer. "Nationwide strongly disagrees with the jury verdict and we believe we have substantial grounds to file an appeal."
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