'My dead sister paid for Progressive to defend driver who killed her': Brother's outrage at insurance company's efforts to avoid paying claim

A brother has called out at an insurance company after it paid for lawyers to defend the negligent driver who killed his sister to avoid paying out on her policy in full.



Kaitlynn Fisher, 24, was hit and killed by a driver who ran a red light in Baltimore.



Now Matt Fisher, Katie's older brother, wrote a desperate account of his family's fight with Progressive, an auto insurance company, after they resorted to extreme measures to avoid the bill.



Mr Fisher says that not only did Progressive refuse to pay the $100,000 policy to her estate, they even went so far as to pay for her killer's attorney.



Fight: Matt Fisher, left, Kaitlynn's, right, older brother, wrote a desperate account of his family's fight with Progressive, an auto insurance company, after they refused to pay out her policy - resorting to extreme measures Tragedy: Kaitlynn Fisher was driving on N. Calvert Street in Baltimore when she was hit by an SUV on June 19, 2010

Kaitlynn Fisher was driving on N. Calvert Street in Baltimore when she was hit by an SUV on June 19, 2010 .



Her Honda Insight was pushed onto a curb and head-on into a light pole by the impact. The other driver, Ronald Kevin Hope III, had run a red light. He was unharmed in the accident.

Mr Fisher, who is a comedian in New York, said that all the evidence pointed towards her innocence, with a witness even testifying that she had the green light, but Progressive still refused to pay.



He described the incident in a post on his blog entitled, 'My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court .'

'One indication that the case was pretty open-and-shut was that the other guy’s insurance company looked at the situation and settled with my sister’s estate basically immediately,' Mr Fisher wrote.



'Now, because the other driver was under-insured, that payment didn’t amount to much, but my sister carried a policy with Progressive against the possibility of an accident with an under-insured driver.'



Mr Fisher says that because of her policy, Progressive was required to pay the difference between the driver's insurance and the value of Kaitlynn 's policy. They refused.



Outrage: Mr Fisher says that not only did Progressive refuse to pay the $100,000 policy to her estate, they even went so far as to pay for her killer's attorney



Claim: The family opted to file a civil suit against the driver and the case went to trial. Progressive's in-house attorney Jeffrey R. Moffet assisted the defense

Kaitlynn was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a undergraduate degree in engineering. She then went on to graduate school, earning a Masters of Materials degree from the same school.



She was working as a contracted employee for the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, MD.



In her obituary, her family said she had just completed a 10-mile race the morning she was killed. She was remembered as a lover of travel as well as the captain of the Lady Birds Dance Team.



Faced with outstanding student loans, the Fisher family tried to sue Progressive. Unfortunately, the State of Maryland does not allow claimants to sue an insurance company. One must first sue the person who did not have sufficient insurance to establish negligence, Mr Fisher said.

Sibling Love: Kaitlynn was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a undergraduate degree in engineering

The family opted to file a civil suit against the driver and the case went to trial.

'At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team,' Mr Fisher said.

'If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.'

'If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.'

Matt Fisher

Progressive's in-house attorney Jeffrey R . Moffet assisted the defense.

During the trial, the driver was found to be negligent and the jury awarded the family $760,000 in damages.



The Fishers are still waiting for their money.

Mr Fisher's story has earned a lot of attention. Numerous people have been tweeting at Progressive, demanding answers.



They do not deny the incident occurred..



'This is a tragic case, and our sympathies go out to Mr. Fisher and his family for the pain they’ve had to endure,' Progressive tweeted.



'We fully investigated this claim and relevant background, and feel we properly handled the claim within our contractual obligations. Again, this is a tragic situation, and we’re sorry for everything Mr Fisher and his family have gone through.'

They claim that they did not serve as the attorney for the defendant in this case.

'I’d like to take this opportunity to explain Progressive’s role in this complex case.

'To be very clear, Progressive did not serve as the attorney for the defendant in this case. He was defended by his insurance company, Nationwide.'

However, court documents clearly show that Progressive filed as an 'interested party' and was 'allowed to intervene as a party defendant' and 'granted all rights to participate in this proceeding as if it were an original party to this case.'

Which means they not only assisted the defense, but acted as if they were the defense.



'There was a question as to who was at fault, and a jury decided in the Fisher family’s favor just last week,' Progressive continued.

