House Insurance panel backs bill to fix two-year deadline after court ruling

The House Insurance Committee on April 14 reported favorably on House Bill 1117, a measure lawmakers said is meant to restore a fixed two-year window to sue after a loss.

Chairman Furman, who presented the bill on behalf of the sponsor, said HB 11 17 was filed in response to a recent Louisiana Supreme Court opinion and would prevent insurer payments from restarting the prescriptive period. “It clarifies that a payment doesn't restart prescription. Simple as that,” he said.

Supporters told the committee that the court’s decision created a moving deadline that can change every time an insurer makes a good-faith payment, complicating when victims must file suit. Furman cited a footnote in the court’s opinion that, he said, “acknowledg[es] there’s a problem and … tells the legislature to fix it.”

During questioning, Representative Mena asked whether accepting a partial payment preserves a policyholder’s right to sue. Furman replied that accepting a payment does not preserve a claim indefinitely and reiterated that the bill would restore a “hard clear deadline that starts on the date of loss and runs two years.”

Committee members also discussed whether defendants or insurers have any current obligation to give explicit notice of the prescriptive deadline; witnesses said they were unaware of any such notice requirement and that a statutory notice obligation would be a separate policy choice.

Representative Glorioso moved to report HB 11 17 favorably; with no objections, the committee carried the motion by voice vote and reported the bill to the next stage without a recorded roll-call tally.

The committee did not take a final floor vote on the bill; the next procedural steps will follow the House’s regular calendar.