Significant Verdicts

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An elderly Cuban couple who have lived in America for 15 years each wanted to be sure the other was taken care of if something should happen to one of them. Their daughter was an insurance agent, so 70-year-old Enrique Otero and 67-year-old Hilda Otero asked her to help them obtain a life insurance policy to take care of each other.

Mr. Otero, a butcher at Sedano's supermarket, and Mrs. Otero, a seamstress, had established a good life for themselves without learning English.

Their daughter contacted the Midland Insurance Company, and prepared and sent in applications on her parents' behalf.

The Oteros contacted Ervin A. Gonzalez and told him that the Midland Insurance Company representative suspected that the couple might not speak English when he saw that Mr. Otero was born in Cuba and therefore refused to sell them a policy.

By refusing to accept the application simply because the Oteros spoke only Spanish, the company acted in "Bad Faith."

Either their daughter or a bi-lingual agent could have explained the Midland policy to them.

Two years before the Oteros applied for their insurance, then Florida Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher issued an informational bulletin notifying all insurance companies doing business in Florida that a refusal to issue insurance based upon an inability to speak English was in violation of Florida's Insurance Bad Faith Statute.

During the six-day trial, which was covered extensively by the South Florida media, Mr. Gonzalez played the audio tape on which the Midland representative said that it was against their policy to sell insurance to anyone who could not speak English.

The jury awarded each $100,000.00, the amount of the insurance policy the Oteros had wanted to purchase, plus an additional $400,000.00 in mental anguish to each plaintiff. The total award of $ 1 Million sends a clear and compelling message to all insurance companies not to treat non English speaking Floridians unfairly.