Wednesday, April 20, 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
Backed by heavy hitters in the insurance and business community, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. of Columbus has appealed its dispute with Christine Lucarell, its former agent, to the Ohio Supreme Court.
In doing so, it was appealing the unanimous decision of a three-judge panel of the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals that gave Lucarell $2,375,708.
Nationwide’s appeal to the state’s top court, filed Monday, was accompanied by two friend-of-the-court briefs on its behalf, one from the insurance industry and the other from broader business interests.
One of the briefs was from the Ohio Insurance Institute, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Association of Ohio Life Insurance Companies.
The other was from the Ohio Alliance for Civil Justice, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.
The jury in the 2012 trial of Lucarell’s lawsuit against Nationwide awarded her $42.8 million, but visiting Judge Thomas J. Pokorny, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, reduced that to $14,167,010 after the trial, and the appeals court further reduced it to the $2,375,708 figure.
The three-judge panel also sent the case back to Judge Pokorny for a new trial on Lucarell’s fraud claim and on punitive damages for her breach-of-contract claims.
Lucarell, whose Nationwide agency was in Boardman Plaza, had sued the insurance giant, alleging it breached her contract as a Nationwide agent.
She also alleged Nationwide recruited her and about 400 other agents with the intention of terminating their agencies once they generated a profitable book of business for Nationwide.
Nationwide, however, said its objective was “to recruit agents and position them for success, not failure.”
The 7th District Court decision “fundamentally alters the law of contracts, fraud and punitive damages in Ohio, affecting nearly every business transaction in the state,” Nationwide said in its memorandum urging the state’s top court to hear its appeal.
Lucarell’s lawyer, Patricia A. Morris, of Boardman, could not be reached for comment on Nationwide’s appeal.
Lucarell, of Boardman, is the Republican challenger to Democratic Mahoning County Treasurer Daniel R. Yemma in the Nov. 8 general election.