A Loyola Law School professor is suing Farmers Insurance Exchange, alleging the insurer has only offered her $1,000 for injuries she received as a passenger in a car that was hit from behind by another motorist even though her medical care and other damages have totaled more than $300,000.
Priscilla Ocen’s specialties are in criminal and family law. She is a nationally recognized scholar and advocate whose work centers on how the criminal justice system allegedly disproportionately impacts women of color.
In her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Thursday, Ocen alleges breach of contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. She also is seeking a declaration of the rights and obligations of the parties.
A Farmers’ spokesman said Tuesday that the insurer does not comment on pending litigation.
According to the lawsuit, Ocen, then 44, was a passenger in a Subaru Outback SUV that was hit from behind by a Toyota Corolla on the Ventura (101) Freeway in Ventura County at about 1 p.m. on May 24, 2024. Ocen, who was wearing a seat belt, took the brunt of hundreds of pounds of camping equipment stored in the trunk that was propelled forward from the impact and the airbags did not deploy, according to the suit.
Ocen was generally healthy before the accident and regularly took part in sports ranging from swimming and pickleball to tennis and basketball, according to the suit. But she suffered multiple injuries, including to her left hip and shoulder, as a result of the impact, the suit states.
The accident has “devastated every dimension of plaintiff’s personal and professional life,” the suit states. Ocen, co-director of the Loyola Anti-Racism Center, can no longer stand for two-hour lectures, has spent time getting medical treatment — hours she could have used writing and conducting research — missed a friend’s wedding and even turned in grades late, according to the suit.
Her damages, including past and present medical care, are about $306,450, but Farmers has only offered $1,000 for her bodily injury claims, the suit states. The other driver had only minimal insurance and under Farmers’ policy with the owner of the SUV in which Ocen was riding the plaintiff is entitled to the maximum $100,000 coverage for accidents involving under-insured parties, according to the suit.
“No reasonable insurer, acting in good faith after a thorough investigation of the objective medical evidence presented, could conclude that $100,000 represents the fair and reasonable value of plaintiff’s (under-insured) motorist claim,” the suit states.