Can a business make a deduction from a customer’s insurance settlement?

Can a business make a deduction from a customer’s insurance settlement?

We are a restoration company that had a fire. In that fire we lost customers’ contents which our insurance will cover. When the insurer pays for the contents, they make a check payable to our company and we then pay the customers. That being the case, is a customer owes our company money for work that we did for them but they refuse to sign their insurance proceeds over to us, can we legally keep the money that our insurance paid for their loss in our fire?

Asked on August 22, 2013 under Business Law, Indiana

Answers:

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