# State Farm refuses claim for exploding body. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 26, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002 "2014-04-26T00:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/1 "2014-04-26T00:15:24Z")
The judges don’t have a clue how much a bloated body can spew. I’ve seen a few cows and wildlife bloated. Disturbing them is a very bad idea. It literally can explode and spew over a small room. I’m surprised a basic homeowner’s policy wouldn’t cover this damage. It’s fluid leakage from the upstairs apartment. No different than a tub overflowing or an upstairs fire. It’s property damage. Have to give the homeowner credit for thinking outside the box. > **[Florida woman loses battle for insurance coverage after home was damaged by...](https://www.nydailynews.com/2014/04/25/florida-woman-loses-battle-for-insurance-coverage-after-home-was-damaged-by-exploding-corpse/)** > > Here’s a new factor while choosing insurance policies: How old is your upstairs neighbor? A Florida woman whose home was damaged after a woman’s corpse “exploded” in the apa… > [@](#): > > State Farm in turn argued that her policy covered personal property damage only for specifically listed perils, and a decomposing body was not one of them. > > Rodrigo argued that an “explosion” was indeed a listed peril. She further provided an affidavit of a licensed physician explaining that the deceased’s body “underwent advanced decomposition” and “the internal contents of her body explosively expanded and leaked.” > > The appeal court, upon reviewing the exact language in her policy, disagreed this week and sided with the trial court. > > “The plain meaning of the term ‘explosion’ does not include a decomposing body’s cells explosively expanding, causing leakage of bodily fluids,” they stated. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/2 "2014-04-26T00:17:49Z")
Sounds like this woman had a very bad neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/3 "2014-04-26T00:23:08Z")
solution is if you find a bloated body on your property then you should stick a fire cracker in it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/4 "2014-04-26T00:23:22Z")
The article really should have indicated this won’t just be a cleanup. I could see them stripping the walls back to the studs. They’ll probably have to take out hardwood flooring and the subfloor. That plywood will be contaminated. This would like a home after a flood and mold has set in. Its all got to get ripped out. Otherwise the smell will be there a long, long time. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/5 "2014-04-26T00:24:39Z")
While I might agree that “explosion” coverage _might_ not include bloated bodies, I think this is an example of bad policy handling by the insurance company. How many cases like this do they have to handle per year? If I were an executive in the insurance company, I’d say, “Pay the damn claim and write it off. The claim plus the cost of a trial isn’t worth the adverse publicity; the cost is peanuts to us.” It’s corporate policies like this that give corporations a bad name. It would have been much cheaper just to pay up and forget it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/6 "2014-04-26T00:49:54Z")
I thought the same thing. Write it off as normal property damage. It’s a no win situation for the Insurance company to fight this in court and get the bad publicity. State Farm is still trying to recover from the bad publicity after Katrina. There are dozens of stories on Google (search for _state farm katrina lawsuit_). Some from just last year. The litigation has dragged on over seven years. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/7 "2014-04-26T01:03:19Z")
I’ve heard of ‘biting the hand that feeds you’ before _but_… [Quote=Courthouse News] Maintenance men forced open her apartment door and found her body almost two weeks after the presumed time of death. Her puppy was picking at the corpse, the neighbor said. “I don’t know how the dog stayed alive. It must have been at her for some time,” Colangelo said. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/8 "2014-04-26T01:14:56Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > solution is if you find a bloated body on your property then you should stick a fire cracker in it. The insurance company would have a really easy time denying your claim after you’re charged with arson/detonating a bomb/willful destruction of property. ---
**Author:** ![will567](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/51bf81/32.png) [@will567](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/will567)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/9 "2014-04-26T01:17:08Z")
I had car insurance with State Farm from when I first got my license. Some 10 years later, they decided to cut back their presence in NJ, and dropped me(along with many others) for no reason except to reduce their exposure in a state that they felt had rules and regulations they didn’t like. Screw State Farm, they suck. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/10 "2014-04-26T01:22:37Z")
" Like a good neighbor, we’re rotten". ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/11 "2014-04-26T01:33:13Z")
I don’t think explode is the wrong word for what happens to this whale at all. > **[Goodies // Random Awesomeness I Encounter » Blog Archive » Dead Whale...](https://goodies.benwildeboer.com/dead-whale-explodes-gross/)** I had to click the gif link to get it to work. Even a proportionally scaled down event of that nature should be covered. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/12 "2014-04-26T03:05:16Z")
You want to know what’s really sad in this story? Some poor old lady’s death went unnoticed for two weeks. It seems she had nobody close enough, family or friends, to keep in touch. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/13 "2014-04-26T03:11:36Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I don’t think explode is the wrong word for what happens to this whale at all. > [http://goodies.benwildeboer.com/dead-whale-explodes-gross/](http://goodies.benwildeboer.com/dead-whale-explodes-gross/) > I had to click the gif link to get it to work. > > Even a proportionally scaled down event of that nature should be covered. That sure puts our pimple/boil threads to shame. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/14 "2014-04-26T03:14:50Z")
Outliving family and dying alone has always been a fear of mine. I call my mom every morning to briefly chat and make sure shes ok. She’s 81 and I worry about her. [http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/11/24/The\_Case\_of\_the\_Exploding\_Corpse.htm](http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/11/24/The_Case_of_the_Exploding_Corpse.htm) > [@](#): > > Colangelo says there was no foul play suspected. The woman died of old age. He says she moved in after her last known family member, her mother, passed away in the same apartment. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/15 "2014-04-26T10:54:36Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Sounds like this woman had a very bad neighbor. Sounds to me like the insurance company bought themselves some very good judges. (Good for the insurance companies that is.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/16 "2014-04-26T13:23:48Z")
Read the article a bit closer > [@](#): > > Unfortunately for Rodrigo, whose apartment was consequently gutted because of the lingering stench, the foul odor remained and her plea for personal property damage coverage from State Farm was rejected. > > According to court documents, a contractor with State Farm did inspect her unit and they consequently signed an appraisal award, but Rodrigo rejected the payment while wanting full coverage for the sickening damage. > > State Farm in turn argued that her policy covered personal property damage only for specifically listed perils, and a decomposing body was not one of them. She didn’t own a home she had an apartment with a renters policy. Renters policies only cover named perils decomposing bodies not being one of them. State Farm apparently made an offer of coverage which she rejected wanting more. It sounds like (not sure article isn’t real clear) that she wanted State Farm to remediate the smell in the building itself, which apparently she does not own, has no insurable interest in, and is named as an exclusion in her renter’s policy. I don’t blame SF for whipping her ass in court. ---
**Author:** ![Shark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-farm-refuses-claim-for-exploding-body/687002/17 "2014-04-28T15:56:37Z")
I’m somewhat amazed that a woman who dies of old age had the optimistic viewpoint to get a puppy. Exactly how long did she think she had left?