Mostyn Law Firm announces 1,200 Ike claims against TWIA settled

Five years after Hurricane Ike made landfall, the Mostyn Law Firm in Houston announced that it settled 1,200 insurance claims against Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.

On Sept. 13, 2008, Ike struck Galveston and pummeled the Texas Gulf Coast, leaving in its wake billions of dollars in damage and thousands of lawsuits alleging TWIA wrongfully underpaid insurance claims.

“So many of our neighbors on the Gulf Coast have been waiting to truly rebuild for five years,” said Steve Mostyn in a Nov. 7 press release.

“We’ve helped bring millions of dollars back into these communities. Small businesses can get back to work and neighborhoods can truly rebuild.”

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association was created in 1970 as the insurer-of-last-resort for the Texas gulf coast residents. Insurance companies stopped providing basic wind and hail insurance to the region following Hurricane Celia, leaving the state as the only option to protect homeowners.

According to the press release, the organization’s alleged failure to pay legitimate claims to Ike victims has resulted in more than $500 million in settlements.

In January 2011, the Southeast Texas Record reported that 64 attorneys from Southeast Texas received an estimated $44 million from settlement agreements with TWIA.

“We sent a powerful message to the state government to do more to fulfill their responsibility to gulf coast homeowners,” Mostyn said.

“It would have been a lot less expensive, and much better for our communities, if they had met their obligations five years ago. We’re happy this is all behind us, but we need to remind our leaders that their responsibility is to the people.”

The plaintiffs’ Steering Committee included attorneys Steve Mostyn, Craig Eiland, Mitchell Toups, and others. The attorneys collectively oversaw more than 10,000 cases that were unfairly and improperly handled by TWIA, the press release states.