Missouri Court of Appeals Affirms $28.4 Million Jury Verdict for Missouri Policyholders, Increasing Total Recovery to $47.2 Million After Pre-Judgment Interest
The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the full $28.4 million jury verdict obtained by Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP and co-counsel Schirger Feierabend LLC on behalf of policyholders of the Defendant Kansas City Life Insurance Co.
In the fall of 2019, Stueve Siegel Hanson and Schirger Feierabend filed the lawsuit on behalf of Missouri policyholders of certain universal life insurance products issued by the Defendant. The jury reached a verdict in their favor on December 9, 2022. The decision on appeal reflects the culmination of a long fight that has resulted in Stueve Siegel Hanson obtaining full damages for the Missouri policyholders caused by Defendant’s 40-years-long breach of contract.
In its decision, the Missouri Court of Appeals found that the policyholders suffered lower cash accounts “than they should have been because more was deducted for the cost of insurance than the Policies permitted” Kansas City Life to deduct. The Court rejected Kansas City Life’s numerous arguments seeking to have the verdict set aside, finding that the unambiguous provisions of the Policies did not permit Kansas City Life to make the deductions it had taken for over 40 years. The Court also rejected Kansas City Life’s challenges to the order certifying the class and the testimony of the policyholders’ actuary who calculated damages.
In a significant further victory for the policyholders, the Court concluded that the policyholders were entitled to pre-judgment interest on the $28.4 million award, increasing the judgment to the policyholders by approximately $14.6 million dollars. With post-judgment interest also accruing, the total damages recovered for Missouri policyholders stands at approximately $47.2 million.
“We are continuing to fight the good fight for our Missouri policyholders. To date, our efforts to settle with KCL have been unsuccessful but hopefully this complete victory on appeal will help finally get policyholders the relief they deserve”, said lead trial counsel Patrick Stueve of Stueve Siegel Hanson.
Stueve Siegel Hanson and Schirger Feierabend are currently defending two other judgments against Kansas City Life on appeal, including one that was argued to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on the same day that the Missouri Court of Appeals issued its decision. The firms are also prosecuting cases at the trial level on behalf of California and Maryland policyholders. And they continue to investigate claims on behalf of Kansas City Life policyholders in other states and claims against other insurance companies for improper Cost of Insurance charges.
This class-action trial and appeal represents one of many wins secured by Stueve Siegel Hanson’s Class Trials & Appeals team. The Class Trials & Appeals team consists of attorneys with experience winning class-action jury trials and successfully defending the verdicts on appeal in cases in federal and state appellate courts across the country. Stueve Siegel Hanson handles high-stakes appeals, like this case, on a contingent-fee basis.
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