Harmon's Claim Letter to St Paul Travelers

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

Las Vegas, NV 89118-2070

February 23, 2005

Mary I. King, Claim Professional

St. Paul Travelers, Professional E&O Claim Unit

385 Washington Street, Mail Code 508F

St. Paul, MN 55102

Re: Insured: Ayabe, Chong, Nishimoto, Sia & Nakamura

Complainant: Bobby Harmon

Tracking Number: JHO1511

Insurer: St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company

Dear Ms. King:

This responds to your letter dated February 18, 2005, in which you write:

“I am a Claim Professional with St. Paul Travelers Insurance Company. I am responsible for oversight of the handling of a notice of claim made by you against Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia & Nakamura (“ACNSN”) by letter dated June 24, 2002. As such, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the email inquiry you submitted to our Consumer Affairs office on January 31, 2005.

“Your email inquiry relates to your June 24, 2002 letter that you sent to our insured ACNSN, whereby you alleged fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, personal injury, defamation of character, extortion, racketeering and other wrongful acts against ACNSN. It is my understanding that you were a plaintiff in a wrongful termination case and ACNSN represented the insurance company. Ultimately, that case was settled.

“Your email suggests you expected to hear from St. Paul regarding your notice of claim to ACNSN. Our responsibility here lies to our insured ACNSN. We have spoken to them regarding your current email correspondence dated January 31, 2005, and the firm has authorized us to provide the following information to you regarding your June 24, 2002 letter to ACNSN.

“St. Paul received notification from our insured ACNSN of your June 24, 2002 inquiry to ACNSN. Pursuant to the terms of the policy, St. Paul opened a “potential claim” and requested our insured to notify us of any pertinent developments.

“In light of the foregoing, St. Paul has responded appropriately to our insured ACNSN.”

cc: Sid Ayabe, Esq.

Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia & Nakamura

1001 Bishop Street, Suite 2500

Honolulu, HI 96813

< END OF QUOTATION >

Ms. King, I appreciate your response, albeit 2½ years late, however, I respectfully disagree with your explanation for the following reasons:

1. You state that St. Paul opened a “potential claim”. However, if you will review my letter of June 24, 2002, you will see that my Notice of Claim was an ACTUAL CLAIM under the terms of your insurance policy - not a “potential” one.

2. You state that your understanding was that I was a plaintiff in a wrongful termination case and ACNSN represented the insurance company, and, ultimately, that case was settled. Unfortunately, your understanding regarding this claim is incorrect and is obviously based upon biased and faulty information received from your insured. All that my June 24, 2002, letter to your insured stated was:

“This is to provide your firm with a formal Notice of Claim for alleged fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, personal injury, defamation of character, extortion, racketeering, and other wrongful acts involving Jeffrey H.K. Sia, Hamilton McCubin, Nathan Aipa, Colleen Wong, Louanne Kam and others yet to be named. Please have your INSURANCE COMPANY’S CLAIMS ADMINISTRATOR contact me within 10 days for further details.”

If St. Paul Travelers had contacted me promptly in order to investigate this claim, as it is obligated to do under the terms of their insurance policy, I would have furnished the complete facts - something that your insured was not in a position to provide. My cases against Kamehameha Schools and P&C Insurance Company may have been settled, but my Notice of Claim against your insured was a new claim involving what I am claiming were your insureds’ wrongful acts which were committed by them during the course of the settlement of my RICO and Wrongful Termination lawsuits.

3. You state, “Our responsibility here lies to our insured ACNSN.” I agree that your responsibility lies to your insured, but I would argue that your company’s responsibility includes promptly investigating any claims made, and then advising the claimant the results of your investigation. That is NOT the duty or responsibility of your insured. In fact, Claims Adjusters normally tell insureds to AVOID communicating with claimants regarding any details of the claim.

4. After setting up this case as only a “potential claim,” you state that your company then requested your insured to “notify them of any pertinent developments”. Here, again, the investigation and handling of Claims - even “potential claims” - is the responsibility of your Company - and is NOT the responsibility of your insured. In this case, this improper shifting of responsibilities now raises new questions of whether or not your insured DID actually notify St. Paul of any pertinent developments, including the following letters and documents which can now be found posted at the following web addresses:

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-6-25-1.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-6-24-2.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-7-11-2.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-8-3-2.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-8-16-2.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/IRS-Sia-11-4-2.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Sia-9-18-4.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Hawaii-AG-12-10-4.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Hawaii-AG-12-27-4.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/Claim-Tsukazaki-1-17-5.htm

www.the-catbird-seat.net/CV05-00030-Answer.htm

If your insured has, in fact, kept your company advised of these “pertinent developments”, the question then becomes “WHY didn’t The St. Paul Travelers provide a timely response directly to me, the Claimant, rather than allowing these claims to go unanswered and unresolved for these many months?” This situation deteriorated even to the point where I was forced into a completely unnecessary arbitration largely because I had to write letter after letter directly to your insureds, and other alleged co-conspirators, simply to try to get some factual answers to some very basic questions. I maintain that a prompt response from your company to my claims notices would have resolved most, if not all, of the issues filed with the American Arbitration Association by Trustee Mary Lou Woo, and would have saved the estate, and me, thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal expenses.

I quote the following excerpts from Hawaii’s Insurance Statutes:

1. UNFAIR PRACTICES AND FRAUDS (Section 431; 13-101 through 107) ...The purpose of Hawaii law with regard to unfair practices and fraud is to regulate trade practice in the business of insurance in accordance with the intent of United States law, by defining, or providing for the determination of, all acts, methods, and practices which constitute unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices in this state, and by prohibiting the trade practices so defined or determined. ... The following are defined as unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the business of insurance:

...i. “UNFAIR CLAIM SETTLEMENT PRACTICES.... Committing or performing with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice any of the following: misrepresenting pertinent facts or insurance policy provisions relating to coverages at issue; failing to respond with reasonable promptness, in no case more than fifteen working days, to communications with respect to claims arising under its policies; failing to adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of claims; refusing to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation; failing to affirm or deny coverages within a reasonable time after proof of loss has been provided; not attempting in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair, and equitable settlements of claims; compelling insureds to institute litigation to recover amounts due under an insurance policy by offering substantially less that the amounts ultimately recovered in actions brought by the insureds ... failing to promptly settle claims, where liability has become reasonably clear....”

Ms. King, I believe it is clear that St. Paul Travelers has been negligent in the handling of my claims in this case and, by copy of this letter, I am filing a complaint in this case with the Hawaii Insurance Commissioner. However, in order to get the settlement of these claims back on track, and to mitigate damages, I am extending to the St. Paul Travelers my offer to attempt to negotiate a reasonable settlement in this matter. Therefore, I again ask that your authorized, and licensed, Claims Adjuster promptly contact me to begin his or her investigation into these claims. Hopefully, we can then reach, within a very short time, a reasonable, mutually-acceptable, negotiated settlement and avoid further adverse publicity and costly litigation. Then, hopefully, we can all mark our files finally, and permanently, CLOSED.

Thank you very much for your assistance and cooperation.

Very truly yours,

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

cc: William K. Slate II, President/CEO, American Arbitration Association

VIA fax @ 212-716-5905 and Email: Websitemail@adr.org

Mark Appel, Senior Vice President

International Centre for Dispute Resolution

(via e-mail: AppelM@adr.org)

Harry Kaminsky, Vice President

Neutrals’ Services, Phoenix, AZ

(via e-mail: KaminskyH@adr.org)

James B. Farris, Senior Case Manager, American Arbitration Association

(via fax @ 559-490-1919 and e-mail: Farrisj@adr.org)

Mary Lou Woo, c/o Steven Guttman, Kessner Duca Umebayashi, et al.

(via fax @ 808-529-7177 and e-mail: sguttman@kdubm.com)

Mark Bennett, Attorney General, State of Hawaii

(via fax @ 808- 586-1239 and e-mail: hawaiiag@hawaii.gov )

Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, State of New York

(via e-mail - www.oag.state.ny.us )

Dee Jay Mailer, CEO, Kamehameha Schools (via fax @ 808-523-6313)

P&C Insurance Co., Inc. (via fax @ 808-523-6313)

Governor Linda Lingle, State of Hawaii (via fax @ 808-586-0006)

Hugh Jones, Deputy Attorney General (via fax @ 808-586-1477)

J.P. Schmidt, Hawaii Insurance Commissioner (via fax @ 808-586-2806)

Janet Hughes, Internal Revenue Service (via fax @ 303-844-3596)

Billy Beaver, Pension & Welfare Benefit Admin. (via fax @ 626-229-1098)

Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., U.S. Dept. of Justice (via fax @ 202-514-1116)

Lyn Flanigan Anzai, Hawaii State Bar Association (via e-mail: lanzai@hsba.org)

Susan Tius, Esq., c/o Rush Moore Craven Sutton Morry & Beh

(via fax @ 808-521-0597)

Gerard Jervis, Lokelani Lindsey, Henry Peters, Oswald Stender, and Richard Wong, c/o Kenneth Hipp, Esq., Marr Hipp Jones & Pepper

(via fax @ 808-536-6700)

Jeffrey H.K. Sia, Esq., Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia & Nakamura

(via fax @ 808-526-3491)

Matt Tsukazaki, Esq., Torkildson Katz Fonseca Jaffe Moore & Hetherington

(via fax @ 808-523-6001& e-mail: info@torkildson.com)

Robert S. Tameler, ALPS, Claims Admin for Bradley Tamm and Greg Dunn
(via fax @ 406-728-7416)

Michael F. Perlis, Esq., Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP, Atty for Federal Ins Co

(via fax @ 310-556-5959)

Mike Coulter, Deputy Managing Director, Aon Insurance Managers
(via fax @ 808-540-4301 and e-mail: mike_coulter@agl.aon.com)

Casimer Fidele, Tradewind Insurance Company
(via fax @ 808-521-7489)

PricewaterhouseCoopers, c/o Warren Price III, Esq.
(via fax @ 808-533-0549)

Terry Mullen, CEO/Pres., John Mullen & Co.
(via fax @ 808-531-0053)

Additional References: