An elderly woman claims her insurance company procured the wrong policy for her, causing her to be denied funding when her basement was flooded with raw sewage.
Georgia Mircheff filed a lawsuit March 24 in the Madison County Circuit Court against the Jessica Harrison Agency.
In her complaint, Mircheff alleges she attempted to file an insurance claim after sewer drains backed up, flooding her basement with raw sewage on May 21. Her basement was damaged and her residence at 66 Oaklawn Drive in Granite City was uninhabitable due to the incident, according to the complaint.
Mircheff's insurance company, American Modern Select Insurance Company, however, denied her claim because her policy excluded water damage that backs up through sewers or drains, the suit states.
Prior to the incident, Mircheff had gotten the insurance policy with the assistance of Jessica Harrison Agency. When Mircheff hired the agency to procure a policy, she told it she was seeking a replacement policy with the same coverage she had with her former insurer, the complaint says.
The defendant knew or should have known the plaintiff has experienced an incident of basement flooding that was covered under Ms. Mircheff's then existing policy, and she expected to obtain coverage to guard against future incidences of same, or that she expected to be advised if no such coverage was available so that she could take other precautionary measures to minimize the uninsurable risk, the suit states.
Mircheff blames Jessica Harrison Agency for causing her to incur financial damages, saying it negligently failed to procure replacement homeowners casuality and liability insurance coverage, failed to advise her to seek additional coverage and failed to advise her that the policy did not cover basement flooding.
Mircheff is seeking damages in excess of $50,000. She is being represented by Thomas W. Burkart of Burkart Law Offices in Hamel.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 14-L-459.