BUSINESS BRIEFS
State Farm pays $1.2 million settlement
Advertiser Staff
State Farm Insurance has paid more than $1.2 million to settle a class-action suit that alleged the company improperly used credit scores of 1,681 Hawai'i customers to set their insurance rates, attorneys for the customers said yesterday.
"Hawai'i law is absolutely clear — an insurance company cannot set rates for auto insurance using credit scores," said Jeff Crabtree, one of the attorneys representing the customers.
The suit resulted in premium refunds being paid to 1,396 of the customers who participated in the suit. The remaining 285 customers with claims totaling $174,494 have not been found, but can still claim their checks from State Farm, according to the attorneys.
State Farm denied liability in agreeing to the settlement, the attorneys said.
OUTRIGGER ADDS KAUA'I RESORT
The $200 million Outrigger Waipouli Beach Resort & Spa on Kaua'i will open Dec. 1, becoming the latest addition to Outrigger's collection of 14 resort condominiums in Hawai'i.
The 12.6-acre resort includes 190 luxury one- and two-bedroom condominiums, a fitness center, and a heated saltwater pool with waterslides. An Aveda salon and spa will open early next year. A third of the resort units were purchased by local residents, said Chris Singleton, managing partner of Kaua'i-based developer Waipo-uli Beach Resort LLC.
Rates range from $245 to $755 a night during the "regular season" from Dec. 22 through March 31 and June 8 through Aug. 25, and $215 to $725 a night during the remaining "value season."
RUBY TUESDAY TO LAUNCH NEW SITE
Ruby Tuesday plans to open its fourth Hawai'i restaurant on Halloween, a Tuesday, at the new Moanalua Center next to the Navy Exchange. The 280-seat restaurant initially will serve dinner only, from 3 p.m. daily, until Nov. 14 when it will open at 10:30 a.m. daily.
Ruby Tuesday Inc., a publicly traded company with about 850 owned and franchised restaurants around the world, expanded to Hawai'i in 2004. Its other local restaurants are at Ala Moana Center, the Town Center of Mililani and Windward Mall.
