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| | Broker Pays for Deadly Insurance Certificate
By Robert Warne - August 6, 2003 Hank Kuiper, an Imperial County Supervisor, insurance broker and ex-adjuster has been breaking a sweat down in El Centro for the past seven years because of a misleading certificate of insurance he issued in 1996.
The certificate, issued by Kuiper, saved Joadd Construction from losing its contractor license and enabled the company to obtain a business license in the city of Brawley and get a building permit.
Joadd Construction owners, Joseph Rumjahn and Wendell Nickell had purchased insurance products from Kuiper for many years. They even donated $1,000 to Kuiper’s campaign for his county supervisor position.
Rumjahn and Nickell were desperate when they came to Kuiper to obtain workers’ compensation in April 1996 because they hadn’t had a valid work comp policy for close to a year.
Kuiper exhausted all of his resources in his attempt to get a carrier to issue a policy for Joadd Construction. Even State Fund wouldn’t touch the company because either the firm or a prior partner of the firm owed it a considerable amount of money.
But despite the absence of a policy, Kuiper signed and delivered a certificate of insurance that indicated Joadd Construction held a workers' compensation policy.
Even though he eventually sent a letter to Joadd Construction nearly three months later, on July 15, to inform the owners that they weren’t insured, it was too late.
On June 16, 1996 two employees fell off a roof while working for Joadd Construction. One died and the other was severely injured. As a result, Kuiper and Joadd Construction were named in a lawsuit that ensued June 27, 1997.
And after six years of litigation, on June 6, 2003, the defendants were hit with a nearly $14 million judgment.
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