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6/9/1994
But Alabama Supreme Court rules that future lawsuit winners must split award with state treasury Daisey L. Johnson will not have to give the state part of a $5 million award she won in a lawsuit against Life Insurance Co. Of Georgia, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday.But future winners of punitive damage awards in Alabama still will have to split their winnings with the state treasury, according to a ruling issued Friday.Attorneys for the South Alabama woman has asked the high court to review it's November ruling that ordered all punitive damages be divided equally between the winning parties and the state general fund, after payment of attorney fees and expenses.Punitive damages are awarded to punish wrongdoing, in addition to compensatory damages, which actually compensate for actual losses due to negligence.An 84-year old Grove hill woman was awarded $15 million in punitive damages and $250,000 in compensation by a Mobile jury in a lawsuit against a Georgia insurance Company last week.Daisey Johnson alleged in her suit that agents of the Life Insurance Company of Georgia sold her a supplemental medical policy that she didn't need."The jury found that Life of Georgia was in the business of allowing it's agents to sell Medicare supplemental insurance policies to low-income people who were already on Medicaid and did not need the supplemental policy," said her attorney Wyman O. "Gil" Gilmore Jr. of Grove Hill.According to Gilmore, Mrs. Johnson's monthly income was only $250, which qualified her for complete medical coverage under the Medicaid program.The company's agents sold Mrs. Johnson a policy, which cost her approximately $100 per month. Gilmore said that it was a policy his client didn't need."I think the jury sent a strong message to the company and the insurance industry as a whole that if they're going to sell the elderly a product, they better make sure that it is a product that the elderly need and can use. We have to protect these older people." He said of the settlement.The amount of the verdict is the third largest jury verdict in the state of Alabama and the largest amount ever awarded by a jury in a fraud case in the Mobile circuit.Gilmore, along with Mobile attorney Sid Jackson, served as Mrs. Johnson's lawyers.Gilmore said that the company's lawyers plan to appeal the case to the Alabama Supreme Court.Last October, a jury ordered Life Insurance Company of Georgia to pay $1 million to Mattie Foster, also of Grove Hill, in a case similar to this one.Gilmore served as Mrs. Foster's attorney in that case as well.
The Clarke County Democrat
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