Day: September 11, 2008

Take a hike Ike – power outages and flooding on the Coast

Once again, a reminder that we’re all in this together.  Even those in inland states who think they’re high and dry will be hoping Ike takes a hike before this one is over.

The Sun Herald has putting up stories faster than I can type – try this link to their site.  As I understand it, the flooding is limited to low lying areas.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of them.

Power outages are scattered and could occur throughout the day as Ike passes by.  Although what we’re experiencing is nothing like what’s yet to come further west, at least one shelter has already opened on the Coast.

The maps put up at 1pm CST show Ike taking a sharp right turn after landfall.  The 5-day tracking map explains how we’re all in this together as 16 states in addition to Texas are in Ike’s track: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

If you look at the map of the various models (below), Continue reading “Take a hike Ike – power outages and flooding on the Coast”

Obama Pens Op-Ed for a Major Florida Newspaper. Why McCain Will Lose in November

H/T to Sam Friedman and his excellent blog. This is simple folks. No Florida, no McCain presidency. Of this us slabbers can be certain, we have been heard and one political party is listening closely while the other still just doesn’t get it. We prefer another approach here at slabbed but are happy the Dems are having a dialogue on a permanent solution.  Now the Obama Op-Ed:

In times of great tragedy, Americans look out for one another. It’s that core value that says, “I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.” We saw it last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. And because future hurricanes and other natural disasters will challenge us again, it’s time to come together as Americans and create a common-sense national catastrophe insurance system, so that no family, neighborhood, city or state is left to bear the full burden of these events alone.

Floridians know as well as anyone that the current property insurance market isn’t working. In some cases, property insurance rates have spiked by as much as 600 percent. As gas prices skyrocket and the economy weakens, that’s more than working families in Florida can bear. Continue reading “Obama Pens Op-Ed for a Major Florida Newspaper. Why McCain Will Lose in November”

The latest pieces in the puzzle known as USA v Perdigao

As Sally James reminded us yesterday, the Perdigao “hearing” where nothing was going to be said was scheduled for yesterday. (this is criminal case, by the way, and not RICO)

There is nothing on the docket indicating the hearing actually took place. However, there are three related items that we’ve not reported – one filed yesterday.

First, the USA did reply to Perdiago’s motion for an evidentiary hearing – the most recent Slabbed post here for those who need background.

Stated otherwise and rebutting any valid reconsideration claim of overlooked or new law, this Court’s Order & Reasons rests on settled and applied Fifth Circuit caselaw against a pretrial hearing in these circumstances.

There is no basis to attack this consensus of Fifth Circuit law, or its straightforward application made by this Court. Indeed, the Court cites and applies no fewer than five Fifth Circuit decisions confirming that Rule 12 does not obligate a district court to hold an evidentiary hearing unless a defendant first has presented facts which would entitle him to the legal relief requested. Order & Reasons, at 3 (citing caselaw). Perdigao makes no effort to answer this controlling authority, either legally or factually.

As the Court made clear, citing Fifth Circuit direction, “to conduct a detailed evidentiary hearing into the merits of speculative and conclusory claims would be ‘tantamount to a fishing expedition.’” Continue reading “The latest pieces in the puzzle known as USA v Perdigao”

Fallout from Leonard and Tuepker Continues in an Unlikely Place

As the months here on Slabbed slip away I am sometimes reminded of Yogi Berra and his famous quote, “It’s like déjà vu all over again”. For instance Nowdy’s excellent post this morning on Perrien in Louisiana was the product of internal discussion last night, a case I wrote and evidently promptly forgot about.  Luckily one of us had a memory last night.

There is a case ongoing in the Western District of Louisiana that I happened to remember involving the Cameron Parish School Board. In my younger days I worked offshore summers to pay for college and I suspect the tiny town of Cameron stuck with me because of the hole in the wall place off the main road that made the best boudin bar none. In that case against State Farm, the Cameron Parish School Board sued because they were underinsured for flood. That case was thrown out, I believe correctly because it is the insured responsibility to fully insure their assets.

The thing I thought made the case oddball was Cameron Parish buying commerical flood insurance from State Farm. I was later emailed that State Farm does sell commerical flood insurance but does not sell excess flood which did cause problems later on with underinsured claims. What the slabbed need to know is you’ll still need an independent agent if you need more coverage than the NFIP limits and don’t depend on your State Farm agent to tell you that, their economic self interest dictates the last thing they want is another agent selling you insurance, especially if you are wealthy enough to own a piece of property that would require excess flood coverage.

The new case involving the Cameron Parish School Board is very interesting for another reason, the federal district court judge cited Leonard and Tuepker in a ruling where he reversed himself. Sound straightforward? Not really and Insurance Law Hawaii tells us why:

Although it had previously found a policy’s anti-concurrent causation clause to be ambiguous, a Louisiana federal district court reversed itself in Cameron Parish School Bd. v. RSUI Indemn. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64902 (W.D. La. Aug. 25, 2008). Continue reading “Fallout from Leonard and Tuepker Continues in an Unlikely Place”

Does State Farm have a recipe for litigation?

Growing up Presbyterian, I was taken aback the first time I was assigned a dish and mailed the recipe for the Episcopal version of a covered dish supper.  I’m equally ill-prepared to determine whether our system of justice follows the Presbyterian or Episcopal model, hence the title of this post.

I’m not suggesting State Farm asked me to bring a dish to Lecky King’s deposition.  What I’m trying to determine is the extent to which all insurance litigation is similiar or if the similarities in two State Farm cases – Perrien and McIntosh – reflect the Farm’s legal strategy.

Perrien, like McIntosh, is a wind/water case – unlike McIntosh, however, it was filed in Louisiana.  We have two posts about the case here on Slabbed.  I wrote the first and Sop wrote the other.

State Farm filed three motions for summary judgment in the case.  The partial summary judgment as to mental anguish claims was denied; the motion as to flood offset was granted in part; and the third, as to bad faith claims was granted in part and denied in part.

Our two posts examined the decisions on mental anguish and flood offset but only mentioned bad faith claims. Given the events of the week, it seems appropriate to give that ruling a closer look. Continue reading “Does State Farm have a recipe for litigation?”