Insurance Coverage Blog

Holy Cow! The McIntosh case, which I have referred to as the Verdun of insurance litigation, has been dismissed by the plaintiffs' own motion.  Given this litigation had long been the scene of intense trench warfare, consuming attorney fee dollars like five NFL offensive linemen chowing down on popcorn shrimp at an all-you-can-eat  buffet, it is surprising to see this turn of events.

If you remember, Thomas and Pamela McIntosh v. State Farm is the granddaddy of Katrina litigation, or perhaps more accurately, the Mother of All (Insurance) Battles.   This is the case where Kerri Rigsby of Rigsby sisters "whistleblower" fame approved the flood payment to the McIntoshes, and where, strangely enough, the original engineering report on the damage to the home said the damage was from wind, not flood.  Alexis "Lecky" King, a State Farm catastrophe team leader, found fault with the report and asked the engineers to re-evaluate.  The second report noted the presence of both wind and water damage.  Before we move on with the recap, remember that the first report was done by a man named Brian Ford, because his name will come up again. Ford did not work on the second report. 

Now, the McIntosh claims file was among those taken by the Rigsby sisters and fed to Dickie Scruggs for use in lawsuits he was bringing and planned to bring against State Farm.  This is the case that really started all the public uproar about changed engineering reports, insurer fraud, etc. etc.  Keep in mind that Kerri Rigsby and her sister, Cori, who like Kerri was another claims adjuster working with State Farm, both quit and went directly to work for Scruggs in what federal judge L.T. Senter called a "sham" consultant arrangement -- but not before they had performed a massive "data dump," where they and some friends spent the weekend copying State Farm claims files to give to Scruggs and his good friend, Mississippi AG Jim Hood.  (Don't forget Hood once called Scruggs his "confidential informant" and helped him play keep away with the documents the Rigsby sisters took. Jeez, talk about backing the wrong horse -- if you go to the track with Jim, use him as a reverse barometer.)

You may also remember that the Scruggs Katrina Group, besides "employing" the "whistleblower" Rigsby sisters, also discussed hiring Brian Ford as a consultant.  Ford wanted a similar deal to those of the Rigsby sisters, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-Large per month.  Entrepreneurism at work, you say?  Maybe.  But of course, payments by a party to material witnesses they would be calling to support their case is frowned upon, and in the end, that led Judge Senter to disqualify the Rigsby sisters as witnesses and to disqualify the Scruggs Katrina Group itself as counsel for the McIntoshes. 

Their present counsel, the Merlin Law Group, went a different direction with this than Scruggs did.  Here's a copy of the motion, and here's part of what the motion says:   

After engaging in extensive discovery, the Plaintiffs have determined the following:

(a) the McIntosh dwelling was damaged as a result of Hurricane Katrina;

(b) the majority of the damage to the McIntosh dwelling was caused by flooding;

(c) the McIntosh dwelling sustained flood damage of at least $250,000 to the structure and $100,000 to its contents;

(d) State Farm promptly and properly paid Plaintiffs the full policy limits of their flood insurance policy; and

(e) State Farm promptly tendered payment to Plaintiffs for wind damage covered under their homeowners insurance policy prior to the time that the dwelling was inspected by an engineer.

This has got to the most surprising development since those German and English soldiers met on that World War I battlefield for a soccer game during a Christmas truce.

The motion, which was granted yesterday by Judge Senter, dismissed with prejudice all the punitive claims.  That left only the contract claims, and my understanding is that those were settled. 

I'll discuss this more later. 

What about the trove of incriminating documents Dickie told Bloomberg News, on March 30, 2006, that he had picked up from a "third insider" at State Farm's home office in Bloomington, Indiana? Did Mr. Merlin -- the current counsel for Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh -- have access to those documents before he filed this motion? If so, what did he think of them? If not, did federal prison rules allow Dickie to take them behind bars with him? Either way, why wouldn't ickie pass photocopies of them along to the McIntosh's and their counsle before he checked in with the Feds?

Welcome home, David! Lovely to "see" you again. I, too, wonder what further litigation will stem from this move by the McIntoshes. Surely they will be interested in obtaining some relief from what have to be crippling fee bills.

Welcome back David.

It was a bit of shocking news, thats for sure. I still haven't seen anything on a resolution of the contract damages, but I'd bet serious $ it is very close if not already agreed to.

I had raised the question previously elsewhere whether anyone felt that SF and the Renfroe's would have a good chance of a civil action of libel and slander against Dickie, SKG, the Rigsbys, NBC, and others such as the MO lawyers, etc for their roles in all this mess over the "fraud perpetrated by SF and the Renfroes". I don't believe there would be any problems showing that their reputation was harmed, and harmed on a nationwide basis. A major defense Dickie and company would have to show is that everything they said was the truth, and based on what is in the court records now, they can't say it was the truth (at least not on the McIntosh case). I was under the impression this case was one of the focal points of their allegations. It will be interesting to see what happens on the whistleblower suit, that's for sure.

There is no doubt that between Dickie, SKG members and NBC there are some deep pockets to go after. After all, isn't that what good plaintiff attorneys do is go after deep pockets? Wouldn't be fun if the tables are turned I bet. May turn out that Dickie's stragedy to try his cases in the media in hopes to get the defendent to fold could backfire on him big time.

Imagine him coming out of prison in 4 years or so,not have any assets to speak of and have to go back to work. Maybe he could get a good job as a paralegal somewhere, but most firms would have a conflict in hiring him as they have already been stiffed on legal fees by him. But of course that is assuming that he doesn't get indicted on any more bribery charges between now and then.

Chip Merlin is easily one of the most aggressive, savvy lawyers handling first party property claims. He has surely been a thorn in the side of every property insurer out there, but he's also gained those insurers' respect. If he dismissed the case, it's because he examined it from every angle and realized doing so was the only rational thing to do for his clients.

I agree, Entertained. It looks to me like he had a Rule 11 obligation, when he signed his name, to attest to the fact that the legal conclusions and the evidence supported what his motion said. I've never heard anything but good about his ethics, so my only conclusion is that he independently investigated the facts and wrote up the result of his investigation in the text of his motion.

And Belle remains silent..........

All of which means that State Farm handled the claim pretty well, I would think.

You can see what Belle thinks at that other blog site.

Bottom line is some people are eating crown on this. I wonder how they had it? Broiled, BBQ'd, etc.

You can see what Belle thinks at that other blog site.

Bottom line is some people are eating crow on this. I wonder how they had it? Broiled, BBQ'd, etc.

Welcome back David. It is good to see you are in fine form. It was becoming tedious to read the failed Palin attack blogs.

Absolutely stunning. Wow.

The next shoe to drop will the the qui tam nonsense. I have a sneaky feeling the Snake and Renfroe will let the whole thing go once that happens...everybody (other than Belle and the other website patrons) is ready for this whole sordid mess to blow (or float) away.

What is the status of the qui tam, Thick?

I honestly don't know. But, weren't the allegations of fraud contained in McIntosh also noted in the qui tam suit? The premise was the Snake bilking taxpayers by shifting the wind damage to flood, but even Merlin looked at the evidence and determined otherwise. Personally, I think there are machinations related to Katrina overall to which we are not yet privy.

Reckon how the gator in the pen feels about Borat stealing his lipstick? Might send him a threatening letter talking about his planned suit for theft of intellectual property....no wait, that gator was disbarred and then barred. Guess he can still go pro se!!!!!!! Me thinks his snout has shrunk and most of those sharp teeth done fell out. Guess a pen will do you that way. Good luck gator!!!!!! Bees, you still better be careful there's more viscious gators out there and your game has just about played out. Popcorn anyone? The Insider is on......

I wonder if a public apology will be forthcoming to State Farm for the apparently baseless allegations of wrongdoing which were repeatedly made against it for the last however many months? Somehow I think not. I bet we won't see any politicians saying "whoops, our bad" either.

Ross and commenters seem to assume that there is no settlement money behind this dismissal. How do we know that?

I believe David stated in his post that the punitive claims were dismissed, leaving the contract claims which he believed had been settled. I would think that meant additional monies were paid in order to settle those contract claims.

Who said anything about there not being any settlement money?

sorry to bother you but just had to share. Mississippi Gov to Hood:

"Attorney General Jim Hood issued his opinion advising county election commissioners to ignore the law after the suit challenging the official ballot was filed. Mississippi law, Section 7-5-25, clearly states: “No (Attorney General’s) opinion shall be given or considered if the opinion is given after suit is filed.” The Attorney General’s opinion is not just wrong – it’s illegal. It is disturbing but not surprising that Mississippi’s chief legal officer continues to show such a brazen, partisan disregard for the law."

Mississippi Gal, as one certain poster would ask whenever someone had the "audacity" to rightfully criticize Hood, what have you got against the State of Mississippi, it's government and legal system?

Why, xerac, I love my state. What I don't love are those who represent themselves as "fighers for the little guy" when we all know better, if not by commen sence, then by, lets say, testimony....

Miss. Code Ann § 23-15-511 requires all general election candidates be “clearly distinguished” from special election candidates. In 1990, 1991, and 1992, all special elections were at the end of the ballot. In 2002, 2004, and 2006, former Secretary of State stated the order of the ballot should be as follows (1) U.S. Senate, (2) U.S. House of Representatives, (3) Regular School Board and School Board Trustee elections, (4) Nonpartisan Judicial Elections, (5) Constitutional Amendments, and (6) Special Elections (other than special non partisan judicial elections).

This has been in place while both dems and reps have served as Gov and Sec of State. So its not like we haven't had several years for either party to stand up and change the law if they thought something wasn't right.

All of a sudden, this year, certain people have decided that one particular SPECIAL ELECTION race should be pulled off the SPECIAL ELECTION ballot and put at the top of the GENERAL ELECTION ballot. They seem to have forgotten that this particular race is a SPECIAL ELECTION race. They are screaming that it has to be in a certain place on the GENERAL ELECTION ballot.

Why? They say---oh, its too confusing to understand the ballot if you separate the SPECIAL ELECTION race from the GENERAL ELECTION race. (can you say insulting?)

-Doesn't matter that all but 3 counties in our state have electronic voting machines which won't let you miss any race on the ballot without prompting you-several times. You cant cast your final vote WITHOUT seeing that you've skipped a race. Duh.

-Doesn't matter that this particular SPECIAL ELECTION race IS at the top of the SPECIAL ELECTION ballot. No, that seems to have been "skipped" by those screaming down here.

For some reason.....they want this particular race in a very specific place on the general election ballot. hmmm. And even more interesting...these same people were able to write a brief, get before a judge, and get a restraining order against our Gov and Sec of State (to stop our ballots from going out to the counties)---ALL WITHIN 2 HOURS. Man, I don't know about your state, but here, we've got case backlog in our courts and sometimes it takes years to get thru the system. Hmmm.

Gov and Sec of State had to go to Supreme Court which threw out TRO and sent them back to the first judge--who by the way, happens to be one of the largest campaign contributors to one of the people on the SPECIAL ELECTION race. Hmmm.

Sec of State has laws he has to abide by as far as distributing ballots (see www.sos.state.ms.us, press release, Affidavit to the Hinds County Circuit Court). when the TRO was lifted, he distributed the ballot to the counties. Hood did a press release telling the counties they better not use it. Oops—was that against the law? Yep, and Gov pointed that out.

My apologies, David, didn't mean for this to be so long.

So what if it's illegal? When has that been an inhibitor for Hood? In fact, hasn't experience shown that illegality attracts Hood like a moth to a flame? Isn't that what that sealed up order in Natchez was all about?

Why is Scruggs held in a median security section of the prison rather than a minimum security area? I am hearing that there has been an attack on him. Was his crime considered "white collar"?

Leave the little general alone....he has to pull his hand out of his coat to sign that order! Think Napoleon..... look-out Bees!

So, instead of Verdun, it turned out to be Basra - with the JAM's role being reprised by the McIntosh's...I do rather thing that the role of Muqtada al-Sadr would have to remain with Mr. Scruggs, perhaps Mr. Hood?

www.sunherald.com
Contentious State Farm case settled for $250,000

State Farm announced this afternoon that the company has paid $250,000 to settle a Katrina lawsuit with Biloxians Thomas and Pamela McIntosh, who had been seeking a far larger sum in the nationally publicized case.

"Dick once said he used every trick in the book - political, public opinion, and legal - to force State Farm to pay him money," State Farm senior vice president and general counsel Jeff Jackson was quoted as saying in a company news release. "This case was his centerpiece."

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. dismissed the remaining breach of contract case Monday after the settlement.

ThirdSouth @ 6:14 PM---hahahahahahaha

MississippiGal, I know it took me a while to respond to your response. I was noting how a certain poster would blast away at me if I leveled any criticism at AG Hood because she felt I had no business doing so since I live in California. This is regardless of the fact that what may transpire in Mississippi could have repercussions nationwide. As a citizen of this great country of ours I am concerned what transpires in all 50 states and the several territories of our still great nation. Corruption anywhere weakens the foundations of our country, however, I see you realize this. I just wish certain others could see that and not be blinded by an agenda.