A case filed by a former agent against major insurer
Nationwide Mutual Insurance is now being heard in the Ohio Supreme Court to determine how much in damages she should be awarded.
Christine Lucarell sued her former carrier in 2009.
The Vindicator reported that the complainant signed a contract with Nationwide to become an independent exclusive agent. She was given a $260,000 loan from an affiliate bank to establish her own agency. Under her agreement with the insurer, the loan would be waived if she met her $1.2 million production quota over a three year period.
Lucarell said in her court filings that she delivered “approximately $400,000” in her first year of operation and was “on track” to meet her quota.
However, Nationwide said that after opening her first office, she complained that the contract’s requirements were too high. The firm subsequently changed its agreement with her, and required her and her agents to sign off on the new agreement, with a termination clause.
Meanwhile Lucarell went on record that the agreement was “designed to fail” because Nationwide underreported her actual performance results and “drastically” increased her production quota.
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In its counter-argument, the company said that it handed over six figure “grants - not loans - to support her agency” after the terms of the agreement were changed. Records revealed that the funds were spent to finance Lucarell’s ‘lavish’ lifestyle, reflecting personal expenses that included a second home, new car, and an RV. She also allegedly stopped paying rent on her office, missed loan payments, and quit paying federal taxes.
Lucarell was then placed on probation in 2009; before she cancelled her agreement in July of the same year and sued for breach of contract, fraud and invasion of privacy, according to the report.
A court jury initially awarded her nearly $43 million, but subsequent judicial decisions reduced the damages, until the 7th District Court of Appeals brought the figure down to $2.4 million with an order for further trial court proceedings.
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