Gov. Charlie Crist Tuesday called the appearance of Allstate executives at Tuesday’s hearing “stunningly arrogant” and vowed to use the heft of his legal office to help get more information.
State insurance regulators abruptly ended a hearing with Allstate after just two hours when the company appeared to deliberately avoid questions by presenting attorneys who couldn’t answer them and said they didn’t bring with them the documents required by a state subpoena relating to its property coverage rates.
“I find that stunningly arrogant,” Crist told reporters. “I can’t believe they would actually do that and if there’s anything we can do from the governor’s office that can help…we stand at the ready to do.”
Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said he will order Allstate back later to answer the questions he and other regulators posed. Meanwhile, the company faces severe sanctions, McCarty said, including the possibility of losing its license in Florida, if it fails to comply again.
”What have you got to hide?” McCarty asked Allstate as he opened the hearing, which had been scheduled for two days.
Allstate announced at the hearing that it planned to drop its request for double-digit rate increases but that did not satisfy McCarty or Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, who is the chair of a Senate panel to investigating the property insurance situation and exploring why only half of the companies operating in Florida have complied with the 2007 law.
Crist has asked three trial lawyers to consider filing a class action lawsuit against the property insurance industry and said Tuesday he will meet with them soon to hear “what they think is an appropriate legal action.”
Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber said in a letter to House Insurance Committee chairman Ron Reagan that the hearing was “extremelly disappointing” and he chided House Republicans for failing to join the Senate Republicans and the governor in their aggressive enforcement of the law.
