A life insurance company is asking a federal judge to order the owners of a Poca-based funeral home to pay about $3 million for cashing in on funeral contracts for people who weren't actually dead.
Homesteaders Life Insurance Company was granted default judgment in June in its lawsuit against Chad and Billie Harding, who own Gatens-Harding Funeral Home. The lawsuit claims the Hardings sold and cashed in on more than $1 million worth of pre-need funeral contracts for 111 people who weren't actually dead.
About $2.7 million of the amount the insurance company's attorneys have asked a judge to approve would be for reimbursement of damages, according to court documents. Nearly $70,000 would go toward attorney's fees and $175,000 of the amount would be for interest.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Chambers must approve of the amount the Hardings are required to pay.
The Hardings do not object to the default judgment, their lawyer, Jeff Woods, wrote in a filing last month.
In granting the default judgment, Chambers wrote that Woods had ignored deadlines and had a "complete lack of interest in defending this suit." Chambers struck the Hardings response filed last September in which they denied the lawsuit's accusations.
Woods wrote in a filing after the default judgment that he had been participating in settlement negotiations with attorneys for the insurance company.
"The court had to resort to one of the most extreme sanctions, which was to strike down his defenses," Alexander Macia, a Charleston lawyer that represents the insurance company, previously said. "It's rarely used but this is a case that warranted it."
Woods has refused several times to comment about the case.
In April, Chambers made another ruling by default, finding that the people the Hardings cashed in on funeral contracts for were, in fact, alive.
Pre-need funeral arrangements are sold by funeral homes as part of group life insurance plans, which are designed to fund the funeral services for those enrolled. In the event of the consumer's death, the insurance company distributes money to the funeral home to cover the costs of services and arrangements.
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