Hartford Insurance Hit With Proposed Class Suit Over Car Losses

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. units breached their auto insurance contracts by failing to pay the actual cash value and applicable sales tax owed for totaled vehicles, according to a new proposed class action.

Trumbull Insurance Co., Hartford Insurance Co. of the Southeast, and other units underpaid total-loss claims by relying on vehicle valuation reports from a third-party vendor, Mitchell International Inc., that apply arbitrary and invalid “projected sold adjustments” to reduce the value of totaled vehicles, Pearl Rodriguez said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Connecticut.

The insurers also failed to ...