Rate is up and down.
A judge has granted Allstate Texas Lloyds' request for a summary judgment in a rate battle with state regulators.
District Judge Margaret Cooper sent a letter to attorneys for Allstate and the Texas Department of Insurance about her decision.
The ruling means the state's second largest home insurer will continue to implement the higher rates it started to charge in August — a 5.9 percent hike with an average 2.1 percent on top of that for homeowners in some coastal and near-coastal counties, including Harris and Montgomery.
"Allstate has believed throughout the entire process and continues to believe that we are doing what is responsible and right for the customer," Bill Mellander, a spokesman for the company, said today..
Allstate maintains that it needs the rate increase to maintain enough capital to pay claims in a catastrophe.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance did not have any immediate comment this morning. The attorney general's office also declined to comment, saying it had not yet made a decision about an appeal.
The battle began on Aug. 20, the date Allstate filed for the rate increase. Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin issued an order halting the rate hike, calling it excessive. A few days later, Allstate won a temporary restraining order on the grounds that state law requires Geeslin to give a company 20 days notice before blocking or lowering a rate that already is in effect.
This doesn't mark the end of the fight, said Rod Bordelon, head of the Office of Public Insurance Counsel, which represents consumers at rate hearings.
The office has requested a rate hearing to determine the validity of Allstate's current rates.
"This ruling is simply on the procedural question of whether the Insurance Department was timely in blocking the rate increase" Bordelon said. "There was no issue before Judge Cooper about whether Allstate's rates were appropriate, excessive or reasonable."