After having reached a settlement agreement with a 73-year-old policyholder, Adrian’s Insurance Company delivered the settlement funds to the policyholder’s attorney’s office in scores of buckets full of nickels, dimes, and quarters. Talk about a sore loser.
Although, there is no per se prohibition in paying settlement funds in coins, this is a type of behavior that most litigants do not engage in. It’s an unwritten law, if you will. I guess Adrian’s Insurance Company didn’t get the memo and in the process have generated bad publicity for their company. My guess is that their new slogan will be “nickel-and-diming customers since 2014.”
Although the policyholder’s attorney couldn’t have imagined this scenario in his wildest imaginations, he could have avoided this scenario all together by including a clause in the settlement agreement expressly requiring all funds to be paid via a check. As my law school contract professor used to say “The parties to a contact are masters of their contract.” During settlement negotiations, and prior to finalizing an agreement, the parties are free to bargain for the terms of the contact, which they will later be bound by.
Since the story with Adrian’s Insurance Company went viral, some litigants may find it funny or entertaining to engage in the similar type of behavior. In the abundance of caution, prior to finalizing any settlement agreement, litigants should make sure that there is a clause in the agreement requiring all settlement funds to be paid in by way of a check, to avoid such a scenario. Here is a joke in closing, what are the best coin jokes? The ones that make no Cents.
Here is a link to the full story:
BesideTheLaw 