A little while ago I told you about the troubles a recently widowed friend of ours was going through with her bank and insurance company. Here is the latest, it ain't pretty.
After lawyers had at each other, the result is that the insurance company had a signed contract that clearly states that the policy is not in force once the insured turns 70 years old. (They sold the policy to him on a five year contract when he was 68 years old...go figure). The claim that the insured didn't understand that part of it doesn't matter in the legal world. So....no joy there.
As for the bank, they took the money for the insurance and put it against the principle of the mortgage...they claimed they had no responsibility to notify the insured that the policy was no longer in force. The insured was supposed to KNOW that the policy was no longer in force. No joy there, either.
The topper came when Imera's daughter made an impassioned plea with the powers that be to "do the right thing" since there was obviously a lack of understanding in all this. The answer was that they are not in the "do the right thing" business...they did what was legal and contracted. The insurance company is still asking if the congestive heart failure that killed Dave was a pre-existing condition when he took out the policy...the implication being that he didn't disclose this and thus the policy was NEVER in force. I told her she should follow up on that....if that is the case the insurance company was never at risk and therefor should return all funds spent on their coverage. But Imera is just too distraught for any more wrangling.
And since Dave died, she had to rebuild her back bathroom because of water damage by a long undiscovered leak. No sooner got that done than the downstairs bathroom tiles started falling off the wall.
The point of it all is, I guess, that we need to get our scheisse zusammen and make sure we read the small, little, nasty, lawyerese language small print and double check everything to insure the coverage we count on is really there.
Gone are the days when a man's handshake and solid intentions were worth anything...you can't put any gibberish small print escape clause on a hard working, caloused, honest handshake.