Hartford Life sued over misdirected settlement

A woman has filed suit against the insurance company that she claims refuses to release funds owed to her after she won a settlement related to her mother’s death.

Rene Bassett Butler filed a lawsuit on behalf of Stephany Hosier, a 19-year-old with learning disabilities who won more than $180,000 in a settlement related to her mother’s death.

After Stephany Hosier’s mother died when she was an infant, she went to live with her grandfather, John Hosier, and her step-grandmother, Marilyn Hosier, according to the complaint filed Oct. 25 in Madison County Circuit Court.

John and Marilyn Hosier filed a lawsuit in relation to Stephany Hosier’s mother’s death. A settlement of $550,000 was awarded to them with an allotment of $180,000 allocated to Stephany Hosier at the time of her 18th birthday, the suit states.

Defendant Hartford Life Insurance Company drafted a contract that provided monthly payments of $500 to Marilyn Hosier and a lump sum payment of $157,018 that was to be paid to Stephany Hosier on the day she turned 18, the complaint says.

However, when Stephany Hosier turned 18 on May 23, 2011, Hartford failed to make the promised payment, Bassett claims. Instead, it sent the money to Marilyn Hosier, according to the complaint. Since then, Marilyn Hosier has spent at least $28,018 and refuses to return the funds to Stephany Hosier, the suit states.

In her three-count complaint, Hosier is seeking a judgment of no more than $50,000, plus statutory penalties of $60,000, attorney’s fees, costs and other relief of no more than $75,000 the court deems just.

George H. Albers of Roth Law Offices in Granite City will be representing her.

Madison County Circuit Court case number: 12-L-1740.