Plaintiffs Elizabeth Bang, Maggie Johnson and the class allege that Public Storage has sold insurance with its storage unit rentals – going all the way back to 2002 – without a license and without rate approval required by the California Department of Insurance. The court further certified the California-wide class on the claim that Public Storage deceptively failed to disclose that it controlled the insurance program even though the PSTIP was ostensibly underwritten by a series of insurance companies, including United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, and Traveler’s Indemnity Company. Class claims were also certified against the insurer defendants for unlawful and unfair offering of insurance lacking rate approval.

The case arose out of plaintiffs’ rental of storage units at Public Storage facilities. At the time of the rental, Public Storage employees urged them to buy PSTIP insurance. Maggie Johnson and Elizabeth Bang agreed to insure their personal goods with a PSTIP policy and the premium was added to their monthly bill. Not long afterwards, each of them suffered a burglary at the Public Storage site, and yet each had her claim denied. It turns out that Public Storage was not even licensed to sell insurance and the rates charged were not approved by the DOI. Yet, much of the profit from the PSTIP goes right back to a Public Storage captive entity.

The Court defined the class as follows: All persons who, at any time from June 8, 2002, through March 31, 2010, purchased coverage under the Public Storage Tenants Insurance Program at a Public Storage facility located in California.

This class includes hundreds of thousands of California consumers. Plaintiffs seek restitution of unapproved and excessive insurance premium charges, among other remedies.  A trial date has not been set, but is expected to be held in 2011.

The class is represented by the Law Offices of Kim E. Card, Bryan Kemnitzer and Nancy Barron of  Kemnitzer Barron & Krieg, and Philip Prince of San Francisco.