Mold-Help.org - The world's largest TOXIC MOLD web site
  • Mold Basics
    • Mold Overview
    • Mold Symptoms
    • Mold Types & Images
    • Fungal Infections
  • Resources and Tools
    • Home Care
    • Health & Diet
    • Tips for Parents
    • Coping with Loss
    • Private Research
    • Legal Suggestions
    • Mold in the Bible
  • Mold News
    • Current Headlines
    • “Sick Buildings”
    • The Environment
    • Construction Industry
    • Govt. & Politics
    • The Workplace
    • Landlords & Tenants
    • Insurance Companies
    • Schools & Institutions
    • Strange Fungal Tales
    • Personal Mold Stories
    • Additional Articles
  • Agencies & Experts
  • About Mold-Help
    • Mold-Help News
  • Search
  • Menu
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Farmers Insurance Responds to Melinda Ballard’s Allegations

November 6, 2003/in Insurance Companies /by Carolyn Willbanks

LOS ANGELES– Farmers Insurance Group of Companies today was sued by Melinda Ballard alleging libel as a result of a defamatory and false statement. Ms. Ballard is a Farmers claimant who received an outrageous $32 million dollar award in Travis County over water leak claims on her home that she purchased in 1990 for $275,000 at a foreclosure auction. Farmers would be happy to discuss any of the details of this matter at any time. Farmers has only stated the facts of their claim to the media. Attached is a fact sheet on this claim.

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies includes the nation’s third-largest home and auto insurers. Headquartered in Los Angeles and doing business in 41 states, the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies provides home, auto, business, life insurance and financial services to more than 10 million households through 17,000 exclusive and independent agents and district managers.

Ballard points from Brief — Farmers is confident it will win its appeal of the Ballard lawsuit. — The trial court committed numerous errors. It ignored the law, and it improperly excluded evidence in order to prevent the jury from hearing the true facts of this case. For Example: — This case should have been tried in Hays County (not Travis County) — where the Ballard house is located. The law is clear on that. But the judge — who knew Ballard, and had presided over one of her prior divorces — ignored the law simply to retain this case. — Moreover, the trial court excluded key evidence that showed the true facts of this case. The evidence that the Court did not let the jury see, shows unequivocally that Ms. Ballard and Mr. Allison’s lawsuit was without any merit, and that their insurance claim and lawsuit were, from the start, designed solely to make money — not to repair their house. — The contractor that Ms. Ballard first contacted to repair her hardwood floor testified that he would have repaired the floor for $89,289. Ms. Ballard, however, told him his estimate was too low, and had him raise his bid to $127,950 before she submitted it to Farmers. — Ms. Ballard then obtained other, higher bids (ranging from $139,794.14 to $171,844.50).

These bids were created simply by taking the inflated $127,950 bid and adding more overhead and profit to it. — Finally, Ms. Ballard submitted a bid from “Boessling Floors” in the amount of $194,269. Ms. Ballard falsely represented that “Boessling Floors” was recommended to her by and Austin architect, Dick Clark, and that “Boessling Floors” came to her house to inspect her floor, and bid $194,000 to repair it. In reality, there is NO “Boessling Floors”. Mr. Boessling manufactures pool tables. He never heard of an architect named Dick Clark, and never had been to Ms. Ballard’s house. The “Boessling Floors” bid was actually a “dummy bid” created to make the other inflated bids appear more reasonable. — The trial court excluded this evidence, and permitted the jury to believe that the inflated and fabricated bids submitted by Ms. Ballard were legitimate. — While Ms. Ballard claimed at trial her fear of “toxic mold” in her house, she told her public adjuster that she would “snort stachybotrys if that what it took to hurt” Farmers. The trial judge excluded this evidence from the jury, and instead permitted the jury to award Ms. Ballard $5,000,000 for “mental anguish” that she claimed was caused by the mold in her house, and by Farmers not paying her on the highest of her inflated bids that she submitted. — Ms. Ballard claimed that mold from under her hardwood floor contaminated her entire house.

The trial court, however, refused to let Farmers’ expert testify to the fact that test results showed that no mold was, in fact, growing under Ballard’s floor and therefore Ballard’s claim was false.
— Ms. Ballard claimed that Farmers delayed in adjusting her claim. The fact is, she filed 14 separate water claims between December 1998 and September 2000. (She claimed that all of the buildings on her property incurred toxic mold damage.) Farmers adjusted each of Ms. Ballard’s claims as they were made, and paid on those claims as they came in.
— The trial court excluded evidence that Ballard intentionally obstructed Farmers’ efforts to adjust her claims.
— Ballard claimed that Farmers failed to make a good faith attempt to settle her claim, and the Court let the jury award Ballard $12 million in punitive damages.
— The true facts are that less than two months after mold was first discovered in her home, Farmers and Ballard had a mediation. At that time, Ballard’s experts claimed that it would cost $1 million to remediate the entire house. Farmers’ experts thought it would cost approximately $400,000.
— Farmers offered Ballard $734,000 in settlement.
— Ballard’s response was that she demanded $10 million to settle just her property claims, and that she retain “media rights”.
— The jury never heard this evidence.

Tags: toxic mold, sick building, insurance company denies mold, farmer's insurance
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://www.mold-help.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/moldhelp-654x300.png 0 0 Carolyn Willbanks https://www.mold-help.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/moldhelp-654x300.png Carolyn Willbanks2003-11-06 21:02:282019-02-18 02:15:28Farmers Insurance Responds to Melinda Ballard's Allegations
You might also like
Mold-Help logo Cedar Rapids Homeowner Finds Mold Missed by Home Inspectors, Causes Sickness
Mold-Help logo Buyer Duped as Sellers Fail to Disclose Mold Problems
Peanuts in shellsImage by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay Aflatoxins in our Peanut Butter
Mold-Help logo Agreement Between Walt Disney World and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 681
Mold-Help logo Hale County Enters Mold Battle
Mold-Help logo Vigilance Urged In Toxic Mold Cases

Mold News

  • Current Headlines
  • "Sick Buildings"
  • The Environment
  • Construction Industry
  • Govt. & Politics
  • The Workplace
  • Landlords & Tenants
  • Insurance Companies
  • Schools & Institutions
  • Personal Mold Stories
  • Strange Fungal Tales
  • Additional Articles

Latest Posts

  • Office and Commercial Buildings at Risk for Mold after COVID-19 Closings
  • COVID-19 Symptoms May Include Loss of Taste and Smell
  • New Mold Detox Information on the Horizon
  • COVID-19 Courses of Action
  • Stachybotrys
  • Simple and Easy Ways to Prevent the Coronavirus
  • Your Air Conditioning Unit Helps Eliminate Mold
  • Construction Workers Are Learning to Control Dust and Debris
  • Dangerous Mosquitoes Love Water
  • Insects in your Basement May be a Sign of Water Damage

Search Our Site:

Need Help with Mold?

Are you being affected by mold or other mycotoxins in your environment? Our team and community has over 15 years experience and can provide guidance. You can reach us by submitting your contact or through our Facebook page.

Have a Story to Share?

We're looking for stories and input to expand our database and to add to the personal experiences we've received from the thousands of victims over the last 15. If mold has impacted your life, please take the time to share your story. Your information is confidential and will only be shared with your permission.

Seeking Mold Experts

Are you an expert in the treatment of mold-affected health illnesses, or a provider of services to victims of mycotoxin exposure? Submit your information for listing consideration in our Agencies & Experts resource database.

Additional Resources

  • Contact Us
  • Sitemap
  • Glossary of Terms
  • Discussion Board
  • Survivor Resources
  • General Inquiries
  • Legal Disclaimer

© Copyright - Mold-Help Organization
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Mold Basics
  • Resources and Tools
  • Agencies & Experts
  • Mold News
  • About Mold-Help
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds: