On Oct. 4, 2023, a vicious hail storm battered the Broken Arrow home of Billy and Lacy Hursh. Billy Hursh, 39, a Tulsa police lieutenant and leader of the SWAT negotiator team, was able to spot gouges to the shingles of his steep-roofed four-bedroom house from the ground. But it wasn’t until a worker got up close that the full extent of the damage was revealed.

“A tree-trimmer got up on the roof and said, ‘You’ve got a hole in your roof,’” Hursh recalled.

Two contractors confirmed that a roof replacement was required; one of them grimaced when he learned who had written the Hurshes’ homeowners policy.

“They were very confident,” Hursh said. “But they said, ‘Oh, State Farm is never going to pay out on this.’”

The Hurshes’ homeowners policy explicitly stated that accidental damage to t

See Full Page