DENVER (KDVR) — Update (Feb. 15): The Problem Solvers have learned Janna Shae passed away since our original story aired.
Also after our story aired AllState agreed to mediation, which is still scheduled to take place this week despite her death.
Original story (Feb. 10): Daniel Shae moved up his wedding day to Jan. 31, 2021 to include his dying mother.
“It was one of her bucket lists to be a part of our wedding and we did everything we could to move it forward under these few weeks that we had,” said the 37-year-old.
His 66-year-old mother, Janna Shae, has been told she only has weeks to live after being diagnosed with Stage 4 gallbladder cancer last September.
Her fight with cancer will unfortunately be shorter than the fight she has been waging with Allstate Insurance since April 2019. That’s when she was rear-ended by a driver with a man who had no auto insurance.
Janna has two separate “uninsured motorist” policies with Allstate worth $350,000 that should have covered her for the situation in which she found herself. That’s important because two months after the accident, Janna needed spinal surgery for injuries her doctor wrote were related to the crash.
Yet a year and half later, Allstate Insurance has paid just $10,000 after an adjustor wrote, “I did not consider the surgery as a part of this claim,” even though Allstate has a letter from Shae’s doctor stating, “If it were not for the accident, Janna would not have required surgery.”
“She pays Allstate with the understanding and hope that if something happens to me by somebody else who doesn’t have insurance, you will do the right thing,” said Jonathan Stine, one of the attorneys representing Janna Shae.
Allstate claimed to be reviewing Janna’s case for 15 months from June 2019 to September 2020, when Janna’s attorneys informed the insurance giant Janna had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“I have to tell you I think this is the most egregious, disgraceful factual situation I’ve ever seen,” said Marc Levy, another attorney for Shae.
He assumed telling Allstate about Janna’s new prognosis would finally get Allstate to write her a check for the full amount of her policies to cover her spinal injuries and emotional distress, “Because it’s the morally right thing to do but it’s also the legally required thing to do.”
But instead, Levy said Allstate continued to do nothing. So in January, he filed a lawsuit accusing the insurance company of acting in “Bad Faith” by essentially stalling while Janna is dying.
“If Janna passes away before our case goes to trial, hundreds of thousands of dollars of available remedies to her, that will go away as a matter of law and Allstate knows that. Allstate attorneys know that, we know that,” said Levy.
“I truly feel that they are trying to wait until my mother passes to try to save some money,” said Daniel Shae.
In a statement, Allstate told the FOX31 Problem Solvers, “Allstate has been working with the customer to resolve this matter since 2019 and we are attending mediation next week with the hope of reaching an agreement.”
It should be noted Allstate attorneys didn’t agree to the Feb. 19 mediation until the day after FOX31 reached out to Allstate’s media team and months after Shae’s attorneys had requested mediation.
“We’ve been trying to do everything we can to make memories and moments in these last few weeks. These are not the memories and moments that I would like to have,” said Daniel Shae.
Under a “Bad Faith” lawsuit, Colorado law allows Janna’s family to go after Allstate for three times her policy amounts, which would be just over $1 million.
But when Janna Shae dies, she loses the ability to sue Allstate for any emotional distress and her attorneys told the Problem Solvers that could be worth another $600,000.
