Lauren Scruggs Rejects $200,000 Settlement Offer, Suing for More

By Benge Nsenduluka, CP Reporter Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Correction Appended

Texas fashion blogger Lauren Scruggs has filed a declaratory judgment action in Dallas County to seek interpretation of the insurance policy by the court as the insurer of the plane proposed a $200,000 settlement offer to Scruggs who suffered severe injuries, including the loss of an eye, in the accident.

Aggressive Insurance Services and the plane's pilot, Curt Richmond, have been listed as defendants in the complaint, which alleges that the insurance company "verbally offered" to pay Scruggs a total of $200,000 in damages, according to Courthouse News Service.

Aggressive Insurance offered to pay the 23-year-old a $100,000 sublimit for two insurance policies which had limits of $1 million per occurrence and a sublimit of $100,000 per passenger.

Scruggs lost her left hand and eye in the Dec. 3 accident.

The $200,000 settlement offer was based on the definition of the term "passenger," which Aggressive insurance defines as being "any person other than the pilot, who is in the aircraft or getting in or out of it," according to Scruggs's complaint.

The former "Gossip Girl" intern had just stepped out of a two-seater plane at a private airport in McKinney, Texas, after looking at Christmas lights when she accidentally ran into the plane's propeller.

Scruggs, who now wears a prosthetic eye, continues to make remarkable recovery following the tragic accident and recently thanked the public for ongoing support.

"I don't know how to thank each one of you, properly, for so much love during this difficult incident in my life. My heart is so grateful beyond what I could ever imagine," Scruggs wrote in a statement posted on her website, lolomag.com.

"So thank you dearly for the sweet encouragements, the precious words in letters and messages, the beautiful grace in pretty presents, but mostly I am so so thankful for you and your loving hearts and sweet spirits," she added.

Correction: Monday, April 9, 2012:

An article on March 27 about Lauren Scruggs and an insurance settlement offer incorrectly reported that Scruggs had rejected the offer. Scruggs' party issued a statement saying that she has filed a declaratory judgment action to seek interpretation of the insurance policy, and has not rejected or accepted the offer.