Shannen Doherty just scored a major legal victory against her insurance company, State Farm, after a jury sided with the actress in her ongoing lawsuit, on Monday.
The court awarded $6,346,000 in damages to the 50-year-old star who had previously accused State Farm of not adequately removing harmful soot, char and ash particles in and around her home after it was damaged by a wildfire, according to her lead counsel.
Doherty, who is currently battling stage IV breast cancer, released a statement obtained by DailyMail.com thanking the jury for returning a verdict in her favor.
Victory: Shannen Doherty was awarded $6,346,000 by the courts in her lawsuit against insurance company State Farm after accusing them of not adequately fixing her home after a fire, DailyMail.com can report
‘We thank the members of the jury for their thoughtful consideration of Shannen’s case,’ she said via her lead attorney Devin McRae.
‘We are happy they saw the case the way we do. This should send a message to State Farm and other institutions that they should not forget they are dealing with human beings,’ McRae continued.
Shannen sued her insurance company for $1.4 million for not providing proper assistance when her house was damaged by the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Malibu.
In her suit, Doherty claimed the company ‘took advantage’ of her situation and refused to arrange enough coverage after her house and surrounding property in Malibu suffered severe smoke damage.
In court: Shannen previously accused State Farm of not adequately removing harmful soot, char and ash particles in and around her home after it was damaged by a 2018 wildfire
State Farm General hit back at her accusations, maintaining it did nothing wrong in denying her insurance claim, in part, because the policy Doherty has does not cover the damages she is seeking.
The company also accused the Beverly Hills, 90210 star of not taking the proper steps to mitigate the damages claimed, to the extent that the ‘plaintiff’s damages have been increased’ by her failure to take timely action.
‘We thank the members of the jury for their thoughtful consideration of Shannen’s case,’ she said via her lead attorney Devin McRae. ‘We are happy they saw the case the way we do. This should send a message to State Farm and other institutions that they should not forget they are dealing with human beings.’
According to Doherty, she alleged that State Farm only offered two weeks of coverage for a temporary housing while her property was being cleaned up.
In the documents, the Charmed star explained how her health condition, which includes chemotherapy and radiation treatments, forbid that she be exposed to smoke and smoke damaged property.
Shannen, whose cancer returned last year, was forced to go public with her illness after it became public in court papers that were part of the lawsuit.
The star said the blaze left harmful soot, char and ash particles on the property, which the company did not adequately remove and which could possibly exacerbate her illness. She also suffers from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) which impacts breathing.
Things got vicious in the court proceedings when the insurance giant accused Doherty in legal documents of trying to ‘garner sympathy’ and suggested in that the star continued to smoke cigarettes after receiving her latest cancer diagnosis last February.
Battle: Shannen, whose cancer returned last year, was forced to go public with her illness after it became public in court papers that were part of the lawsuit
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Shannen hit back at those claims, saying publicly that she stopped smoking cigarettes in 2015 after her first cancer diagnosis.
The verdict comes hours after the star offered an update on her illness to Good Morning America as 2021 Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off the first week in October.
Doherty, who is still working, says she’s ‘fighting to stay alive’ and refuses to miss out on friends, family and work in the process.
‘I never want to operate [like I’m dying],’ she revealed. ‘I just want to operate as I don’t have things to check off because I’m going to keep fighting to stay alive.’
Shannen – who is best known for her roles in Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed – is spending ‘a lot of time with friends and family’ and continuing her work as an actress.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Shannen Doherty offered an update on her battle with stage IV breast cancer during an appearance on Good Morning America on Monday
‘A lot of people who get diagnosed with Stage IV, they sort of get written off. It’s assumed that they cannot work or they can’t work at their full capacity, and that is not true,’ Doherty explained.
She added that she surprisingly finds acting ‘more fulfilling’.
‘That is something that I would really like for people to stop assuming and give us a chance to prove them wrong,’ Shannen said.
The television star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 then went into remission in 2017.
However in February last year, it was revealed that Shannen’s cancer had returned and that she was battling stage IV breast cancer.
‘A lot of people who get diagnosed with Stage IV, they sort of get written off. It’s assumed that they cannot work or they can’t work at their full capacity, and that is not true,’ Doherty explained.
Doherty appeared on GMA back then to share the troubling news of her diagnosis and said it had come back aggressively early in 2019.
The actress explained at the time that she had initially kept the news private but wanted to tells fans before it became public in court papers that were part of an ongoing lawsuit against insurance company State Farm over damage to her home from a 2018 wildfire.
Since revealing her diagnosis, Shannen has said that she’s been feeling good, telling Elle in March that she’s ‘got a lot of life left.’
‘I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being,’ she said at the time. ‘It’s hard to wrap up your affairs when you feel like you’re going to live another 10 or 15 years.’
Long fight: The television star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 then went into remission in 2017; In February last year, it was revealed that Shannen’s cancer had returned
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