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A Michigan man claims that his and other consumers’ total loss insurance claims were undervalued by Progressive Marathon Insurance Company in a class action lawsuit filed Friday.
Lead plaintiff, John Mencl, wants to represent other consumers in Michigan who allegedly received reduced payments from Progressive Marathon for their vehicles deemed a total loss after an accident. Mencl accuses the insurance company of perpetrating a “deceptive, fraudulent, and unfair scheme”
Mencl says that his 2010 Honda Accord was insured through Progressive Marathon and deemed a total loss in 2017. Mencl says that the insurance company offered him a total loss payout of approximately $7,000. In doing so, Progressive Marathon compared Mencl’s vehicle to the value of four comparable vehicles; however, the insurer reduced the value of these comparable vehicles by 7 percent with no explanation, says Mencl.
“In the event of a ‘total loss’ to an insured vehicle—i.e., where repair of the vehicle is impossible or uneconomical—Defendant’s uniform insurance policies with Plaintiff and all putative Class members (defined below) promise to pay for the loss, limited to the actual cash value (‘ACV’) of the vehicle,” explains the class action lawsuit.
In a total loss claim, third-party companies are brought in by insurance companies to determine the market value of the vehicle. The market value serves as a baseline for the total loss payment that is made to the car owner, says the complaint.
Progressive Marathon “skirts” its obligations under its policies by directing these third-party vendors to “systematically reduce the total loss evaluations,” claims Mencl. The insurer allegedly instructs the company evaluating the total loss vehicle to use an “arbitrary, baseless, and illegal” reduction – the Mitchell Vehicle Valuation Report.
“The Mitchell system identifies the list price of comparable vehicles sold or listed for sale online,” explains the class action lawsuit. “Mitchell then, at Defendant’s directive, applies a deceptive and arbitrary ‘projected sold adjustment,’ which artificially reduces that ‘market value’ of the comparable vehicles.”
Mencl says that the use of the Mitchell system results in a wide variation of total loss payouts for identical vehicles with no rational explanation.
The class action lawsuit alleges that Progressive Marathon’s total loss valuation procedure violates Michigan insurance laws. Mencl seeks to represent other Michiganites who received reduced total loss claim payouts from the insurance company.
Mencl wants Progressive Marathon to pay damages to him and other Class Members, along with a court order stopping the alleged illegal total loss claim evaluations.
Are you concerned that your total loss claim with Progressive Marathon was undervalued? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiff is represented by Andrew J. Shamis of Shamis & Gentile, P.A, and Scott Edelsberg of Edelsberg Law, PA.
The Progressive Marathon Total Loss Class Action Lawsuit is Mencl v. Progressive Marathon Insurance Company, Case No. 1:21-cv-00489 in the U.S. District Fourth Western District of Michigan Southern Division.
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8 thoughts onTotal Loss Claims ‘Systematically’ Undervalued by Progressive Marathon, Says Class Action Lawsuit
Car accident 7/28/2021 I am currently waiting on progressive to pay my lender settlement fee that I had to pay out of pocket for because the first settlement would have made me pay my lender 1700$ to pay my car off. He was able to get more money by submitting his analysis. The problem I also have is that I’m still waiting on them to send the check to the lender. Meanwhile I was suppose to turn the rental car in after they gave me a settlement offer8/25/2021They only let you have it for 3 days. But we did not finalize the settlement until 9/9/21. I have paid 989.00 in rental fees, my lender is marking my credit report with late payments dropping my score, interest adds daily in my loan , and progressive charge me again for my premiums on my total loss car that they deemed a total loss. There has to be something I can do to receive compensation for the money I am out having to deal with progressive in their lack of customer service, lack of time management, and basically stealing from their customers. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone with them only to be able to leave a message because whoever you’re on the phone with doesn’t handle much and the send you to another dept. only to get an answer machine in the end. Worst insurance company I’ve ever dealt with .
Just had a tree fall on my truck, the vehicle that brings money in for my family and also the nicest vehicle I’ve ever been able to afford which took years of saving to acquire. Progressive said its a total loss and after 3 weeks I got a value $3,000 less than the cheapest compared truck on their list. As stated in your article the vehicles were “adjusted” to bring the baseline price down. I pay on time and this is not the first shady thing Progressive has done to me. Something needs to be done, they need to feel like we have been made to…robbed!
I had full coverage with progressive and filed a claim for vandalism in my motor which was very obvious and they denied it setting me back $23,000 for the total cost of engine and Transmission.
I just had a total Pastor from progressive and I’m not sure if it was the amount it should have been. I don’t feel it was totaled.
We just had a total vehicle loss for progressive 2021, they total pay out was given the vehicle value and not taking into consideration what the market value is selling for which was a few more thousands from the pay out. We tried to prove to progressive that there was no car within 75 miles with the same year make model and miles as our total loss vehicle for the payout amount they were giving us. Basically we never got more money and have to end up settling for a lower year car that had more miles than our car that was a total loss. I have the email communication, with our total loss report and us trying to prove 3 comps when we were trying to prove how much more the cars are selling for
Had the same thing happen to me
I’m dealing with the same thing right now 10/26/21. Low balling me by comparing my truck to vehicles with shredded interiors, dents, rust and high mileage. Who is policing the insurance companies?
We just had a vehicle total loss from Progressive last year in our 2018 Ford Escape. We would like to join the suit please?