Cedar Rapids couple sues Progressive insurance company for damages, fraud

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids couple, originally from Congo, is suing an insurance company because they claim they didn't understand they were signing away their rights to receive full compensation for a car wreck in 2012.

Gloriose Barenga and Dumbo Bukeni are suing Progressive and insurance agent Aaron Mishler and Huaxin Zhang, the insured driver who struck Barenga's car Sept. 27, 2012 on I-380 in Johnson County. According to the lawsuit filed last week in Johnson County District Court, Zhang was negligent in the crash, which caused injuries to Barenga's neck, back, chest, waist and legs. She continues to have pain today.

Barenga and her friend who was driving Barenga's car, were on their way to English as a Second Langauge (ESL) class at Kirkwood Community College when Zhang's Ford Taurus hit the rear of Barenga's car, according to the lawsuit. Barenga was taken to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics by ambulance from the wreck. The bill for the ambulance was $1,101 and her hospital bill was $10,398.

Within days of the collision, the suit contends, Barenga and Bukeni started receiving phone calls from a Progressive agent who wanted to know where they lived and asked to come over to help them. Barenga was 'wary” of the calls because in their culture, this type of contact isn't welcomed. The couple came from Congo, a country with a violent history.

According to the suit, Barenga and Bukeni each fled Congo in 2000 and ended up in a refugee camp in Tanzania, where they met, married and began a family. They had four children but one child died. In 2010, the International Rescue Committee found a home for them in the U.S. and they moved to North Carolina in September. The opportunity for a job brought them to Iowa City in 2011.

About six days after the wreck, Mishler came to the couple's home and obtained a 'Full Release of All Claims with Indemnity,” according to the suit. The release was obtained without an interpreter or written translation to explain the documents.

The suit contends, 'by definition,” Barenga and Bukeni didn't sign a document they understood. Mishler knew or should have known the person signing the document didn't understand it.

The release provided a payment of $1,000 and an agreement to pay for 'additional reasonable and necessary medical and/or dental expenses” up to $9,000 for treatment 'prior to the date of the release,” according to the suit. The most the couple could receive would be $10,000 and they were unaware their medical bills were already over $11,000 and Barenga was still recovering from the collision. Besides the language barrier, the presence of a stranger inside their home was a threatening act to them, the suit contends. They didn't understand why Mishler were there and why he was offering them a check for $1,000. They thought this is what happens when there's a car accident in the U.S.

According to the suit, Mishler and Progressive didn't pay the medical bills from UIHC within three months, instead they waited until Barenga and Bukeni submitted the bills to their health insurer, which resulted in adjustments that benefitted Progressive. Progressive reimbursed the health insurer $1,600, which saved them $7,440 from their $9,000 commitment.

The suit claims Mishler and Zhang committed fraud and took unfair advantage of the couple. Progressive didn't make the payment until Oct. 25, 2013, over a year after the crash and the signing of the release. The injuries and losses of the couple exceed the amount paid by Progressive on Zhang's behalf.

According to the suit, in accordance with Iowa law, the couple will seek recovery for fraud, which includes the difference between the actual value of all damages and injuries sustained by Barenga and Bukeni less what was provided for in the release they signed.