Month: June 2008

Breaking: The Lisanbys Ask Judge Bridges to Reconsider Punis (Updated)

The Admiral is clearly pissed at USAA and isn’t letting up. I don’t see Judge Bridges changing his mind again. Karen Nelson has the breaking story at the Sun Herald:

Attorneys for the Lisanbys in their Katrina case against insurer USAA have filed a motion Monday asking Circuit Court Judge Billy Bridges to reconsider and let a jury decide punitive damages. 

The Lisanbys, Admiral James Lisanby and his wife Gladys, won a verdict Friday in their case against USAA in Circuit Court. The jury awarded $910,000, saying wind had a hand in destroying their home and that the elderly couple suffered because of their insurer’s decision to deny all but $46,000 of their claim. Continue reading “Breaking: The Lisanbys Ask Judge Bridges to Reconsider Punis (Updated)”

We Also Have a New Filing in Perdigao v Adams & Reese

Adams and Reese has replied to Perdigao’s Memo aganst dismissing his Racketeering Complaint. Belle tells me that in the filing Adamas & Reese mentioned seeing the RICO fact statement. If they have seen it we’re not finding it on PACER. Then again the A&R reply uses a different case number so who knows?

NAAS and Sally, enjoy!

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It’s Time Slabbed Busted a Nutt…

Brown v Nutt that is. Our readers may remember Maria Brown as the horny legal secretary that once worked for Scruggs Katrina Group member Nutt & McAlister. She arrived on the public scene precisely when all hell was breaking loose with the Scruggs criminal indictment telling a tale of sexual harassment in her complaint against the firm including bonus allegations regarding document handling that was used by State Farm and Renfroe in Renfroe v Rigsby.

When Nutt & McAlister lawyer Chris Shapley of the Brunini firm reminded Ms Brown that her work on Renfroe v Rigsby was confidential, she responded by reporting him to the bar and including him as a defendant in her second amended complaint. I’ll be completely honest and disclose the escalation from zero to nasty in 2.3 seconds caused me to wonder if her attorney Louis Watson Jr was mentally retarded. He certainly is no Clarence Darrow.

The allegations all sounded good until Nutt & McAlister filed their response to her complaint including exhibits which revealed Ms Brown as a woman fascinated by the male sexual reproductive organ who would set up sexual trysts with her lover John Doe while on company time. After that response was filed, the federal court ruled against letting her amend the complaint. I imagine the case is on life support but now it is time for the defendants to rise to the occasion and provide more background as John Doe filed for a protective order to prevent further details of his relationship with Ms Brown from erupting into the public domain. Continue reading “It’s Time Slabbed Busted a Nutt…”

The $50,000 question about the downfall of Dickie Scruggs

The amount of the bribe – small potatoes to a man with the wealth of Dickie Scruggs and, as it turned out, sweet ones at that – accounted in large part for the stunned reaction to his indictment captured in the Wall Street Journal interview with author John Grisham.

This doesn’t sound like the Dickie Scruggs that I know. . . . When you know Dickie, and how successful he has been, you could not believe he would be involved in such a boneheaded bribery scam that is not in the least bit sophisticated.”

The juxtaposition of his wealth, the small amount of money involved in the bribe, and a needless crime created a picture that remained out of focus even as he was sentenced.

…the amount of the bribe, in this case, that was paid, $50,000 – – 40,000 actually delivered and $10,000 more written, transferred to Balducci to supposedly give to Judge Lackey…The Court does not feel that $50,000 is – – is a reasonable figure to use in calculating the seriousness of this crime.

While reading around this morning, I found a comment that sharpened the picture a bit. Continue reading “The $50,000 question about the downfall of Dickie Scruggs”

Back When Virtually Nobody was Reading Us…….

Brother Bruce over at the New Orleans News Ladder was linking us and giving us exposure to his readers. He helped get us on the cyber-map and for that we are eternally grateful. Other blogs that grace our selective blogroll such as We Saw That and Central Louisiaina Politics found us and vice versa because of Editilla d’Aphasia’s vigilance on bringing various sources of information together. He watches our backs too picking up stories we miss. I start my day with him and hope our readers do too.

The Editilla is the Master of Disaster with lots of soulas and some beautiful children to boot. His endorsement yesterday again makes us blush. So we figure Belle is Molly, I’m HL and Nowdy is Clarence. God help us all.  😉

Sein Fein Brother Bruce!

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Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Divvying up $200 million, Bay Grocery Plan, Habitat and Putting on the Blitz, Gulfport Library Building Slated for Discussion and NOLA GO Zone Bonds Going Unused

Time is very short for me today so I’m going to dive straight in.  First up is the plan for spending the $200 million dollars of Hurricane Katrina relief funds recently allocated to Hancock County. I have news for Wayne Brown at MDOT, they had better make use of the recovery money for Highway 603 or he is liable to find a bunch of angry residents with baseball bats looking for him. JR Welsh at the Sun Herald has the story:

What has been a closely held secret by some local governments has now become public – who may get what from nearly $200 million in federal money for long-term recovery projects countywide.

It hasn’t yet been officially approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, but a proposed list has been sent to Washington from the Mississippi Development Authority. The list of projects approved to split $198.4 million in grant money contains good news for some agencies and bad news for others. Continue reading “Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds: Divvying up $200 million, Bay Grocery Plan, Habitat and Putting on the Blitz, Gulfport Library Building Slated for Discussion and NOLA GO Zone Bonds Going Unused”

“A rich man is just a poor man with money” – Scruggs denied right to equal justice

There is little irony in W.C. Fields providing the title quote as the line between comedy and tragedy is thin. The extent to which the wealth of Dick Scruggs was considered in his sentencing was nothing short of a tragic violation of his Constitutional right to equal justice – and that’s far more reprehensible than anything Scruggs did.

And yet you – – you neither thought you needed money or did need money; yet you committed a reprehensible crime which, in my opinion, is one of the most reprehensible crimes that a lawyer can commit, the corruption of the rule of law which he’ s sworn to uphold…

Another thing that doesn’t make any sense – – well, it makes your crime more reprehensible is the justice system has made you a rich man; the court system has made you a rich man. And yet you have attempted to corrupt it…

The concept of equal justice is the bedrock of democracy, articulated as early as 430 B.C. by Pericles.

Our constitution…favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences… Continue reading ““A rich man is just a poor man with money” – Scruggs denied right to equal justice”

The Mississippi Press Opines in Favor of HR 3121 & Nicely Takes the Commish to Task

Some comments left on Nowdy’s excellent post “Bet your sweet potatoes on the weather and take the pot”  brought to mind a question I asked Dr Edwin Duett at Commissioner Chaney’s insurance forum in response to his remark in reference to HR 3121, “You don’t want actuarily sound wind premiums”.  My question was something along the lines of how do we know exactly what constitutes “actuarily sound”? Before I ramble on further and invite an email from Nowdy that I’ve once again buried my lead I’ll disclose I’ve concluded that insurance is the synthesis of a healthy dose of complex financial calculation along with art in the form of literary sophistry.

I don’t know what is in Commissioner Chaney, Senator Wicker or Governor Barbour’s hearts when they proclaim support for the HR 3121 multi peril concept but sometimes I think I detect a wee bit of political sophistry in their positions. I came away with the feeling the Mississippi Press editorial board does as well when I read their opinion printed yesterday that Gene Taylor’s multi peril bill needs a bigger push which also referenced the Commish’s recent visit to Jackson County to speak to the Kiwanis Club. I wonder if our readers come away with the same impression:

It’s fascinating that Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney doesn’t “see any way that the private industry can cover all the major catastrophic events that can happen in this country.” Continue reading “The Mississippi Press Opines in Favor of HR 3121 & Nicely Takes the Commish to Task”

Media Coverage of the Lisanby v USAA Verdict Continues (Updated)

We have two media reports on yesterday’s verdict each containing some new tidbits of information including the fact the presiding judge BIlly Bridges hails from Rankin County, which is very conservative and not known for electing judicial activists to the bench.

First we check in with Karen Nelson at the Sun Herald who reports on the length of jury deliberations, the courtroom reaction and USAA’s request for the judge, rather than the jury to make the decision on punis:

The total Friday for the Lisanbys came to roughly $910,000, awarded by the jurors. But it’s not over.

On Monday attorneys will argue and the jury will decide whether USAA should also pay the Lisanbys punitive damages. Continue reading “Media Coverage of the Lisanby v USAA Verdict Continues (Updated)”