Day: March 2, 2009

What’s another 30 days when things are going so well? Renfroe v Rigsby

Here’s the latest Joint Motion from the Renfroe v Rigsby settlement talks – Joint MOTION for Extension of Time Motion for Additional Extension of Time.

The settlement negotiations between Plaintiff E. A. Renfroe & Company, Inc. and Defendants Cori Rigsby and Kerri Rigsby are bearing fruit, and the parties are very close to finalizing a settlement. They do, however, need additional time to resolve specific language of the agreement and its supporting documents.

To provide them the time necessary to finalize their settlement documents, the parties jointly request that this Court again extend the deadlines for briefing set out in the Order dated January 28, 2009…the Memorandum Opinion and Order dated February 9,2009…and modified by Docket entry on February 13,2009.

The parties seek to extend the deadlines…by an additional 30 days to allow the parties to work out the details of settlement. The parties will promptly notify this Court when the settlement documents have been finalized to seek abatement of all remaining· deadlines.

As you can see from the docket entry, Judge Acker granted the motion – once again without specifying the actual deadline dates.  Continue reading “What’s another 30 days when things are going so well? Renfroe v Rigsby”

exZachly what’s going in Oxford?

Oxford Eagle reporter Alyssa Schnugg has the lastest story of Zach Scruggs confinement in the Lafayette County jail, complete with comments from Scruggs’ attorney Cal Mayo.  (h/t for illustration Kiss My Big Blue Butt )
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Several Oxford residents contacted The EAGLE saying they had seen Zach Scruggs “out and about” on the Square during lunch on Tuesday

On the day he was being transferred from Forrest City to the Community Corrections re-entry facility in Tupelo, Zach Scruggs was spotted around Oxford.

At the time, the Bureau of Prisons said it was “unlikely” Scruggs was spotted in Oxford because he was to report directly to the facility in Tupelo.

The Bureau of Prisons had allowed Scruggs to get a ride to the Tupelo facility instead of being escorted there by prison officials. He apparently stopped at the Square to have lunch with his family, which, according to his attorney, Cal Mayo, was consistent with, and not in violation of, his furlough. Continue reading “exZachly what’s going in Oxford?”

Conseco hit with the ol’ Going Concern. Bankruptcy virtually assured.

CPAs know “going concern” as they are required to assess the concept in every audit. Hitting your client with the language is also the kiss of death.

Et tu, Brute?

Reuters has the story:

Conseco Inc, a Midwestern U.S. life and accident insurer, warned of a possible default under its credit facility if auditors raised doubts over its ability to continue as a going concern, sending shares down as much as 60 percent to its all time low. Continue reading “Conseco hit with the ol’ Going Concern. Bankruptcy virtually assured.”

No disaster assistance for broken dreams – Katrina’s cost, policyholder’s loss and an interesting set of cases

Huffington Post is running a series of personal stories on foreclosure – providing both a close-up look at broken dreams and an introduction to a set of Katrina cases before the federal court, Southern District Mississippi.

Today we’re hearing from John McClenahan from St. Louis, MO, formerly the owner of a debris removal company. After not receiving payment for his restoration work for Hurricane Katrina, he lost his long owned business, and his home.

I lost my home and farm in February of 2006… In September 2005 I took my tree and debris removal company to Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane work usually added an extra month or two to our annual income, and I did it gladly because I liked the feeling of helping out people in need. After being there for a month, my business liability insurance canceled.

The work I had done prior to the cancellation of my business insurance was mostly for insurance companies. They never paid me. Anyone who owns a business knows it can’t be run without commercial liability insurance and once canceled, good luck finding another insurer. By February 2006, my farm was foreclosed. I lost everything after working for 21 years to build my piece of the American dream quite literally by ‘pulling myself up with my bootstraps’.

After Katrina the banks just kept bashing away at me until my wife and i just blew apart. we had been married since 1980. she was my college piano teacher and college sweetheart, but she couldn’t take anymore and i don’t blame her.

Unlike a lot of folks, I repaid all my debts. Every one. That did not get my wife, farm, home, pets or business back. My life has totally changed and I really don’t know what to do. I have no medical insurance, no retirement, no savings, no outlook and I’m pushing 60. Had I known this was the final outcome, I would not have started out to chase the dream…

While there has been an aggressive effort to identify contractors guilty of wrong doing, I do not recall any attention focused on businesses that repaired damaged property and remain unpaid because of a policy dispute between the property owner and the insurer.

Such disputers, however, undermine rebuilding both the physical and economic base of the Coast.  On one of my recent “sweeps” of active cases, I found four such disputes moved from State to Federal Count by State Farm. Continue reading “No disaster assistance for broken dreams – Katrina’s cost, policyholder’s loss and an interesting set of cases”

While I’ve been out. Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds.

I’ve spent a few minutes catching up with the news this morning. Except for some confusing email exchanges with Nowdy I’ve largely been blissfully ignorant of nonfinancial currrent events in favor of work and the opportunity to spend most of yesterday outside in the freezing wind at the soccer complex.

First off the time stamps don’t work but I’ll invoke the work/blissful ignorance thing and lay claim to being Karnac the Magnificent with this comment I left last Thursday. For some reason this reminds me of the time MDOC screwed with Scott Favre back when. I’ll add there appears be to a very large segment of the populace in Oxford that seriously needs to be get laid or something. Thank Gawd I live on the coast.

Next up is the results of me searching “Anita Lee” at the Sun Herald website. We start with this story mainly because the lady who spearheaded this is an old neighbor of mine. Though not mentioned in the story, the story behind the story is it would not have happened unless an ordinary mother of two kids hadn’t gotten involved.

Looking up that story resulted in this find which was priceless as coast policyholder advocate Kevin Buckel has sued the Commish over a records request. I had to chuckle when I saw the story – we have no bad feelings for Mike Chaney here at slabbed though we give the Commish a good ribbing from time to time.  😉 I think more coasties need to let our Commish know what they are thinking just like Mr Buckel.

As for the lawsuit we wish Mr Buckel well but I noted he appears to be representing himself, the legal term for which is pro se. As Mr Gar once remarked the latin translation means “already lost” but you never know. (H/T Sun Herald for the pdfs). Continue reading “While I’ve been out. Around the GO Zone in 60 Seconds.”

the arithmetic of reinsurance and the miscalculation of ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision following Katrina

Extraordinary level of cat loss don’t just happen overnight and CLS asked an important question about State Farm’s $10.4 billion drop in net worth.

Would that have included litigation cases from cat losses in “2005″ not signed, settled and sealed until 2008? Delay, Deny and Deceive shows up on your balance sheets sooner or later.

Because State Farm is a mutual company, it has escaped most everyone having conversations about reinsurance and Katrina other than CLS and our Sop.

The rest of us, at one time or another, probably have moments in this wonderland of numbers that make us think It would be so nice if something made sense for a change. Maybe that’s why I identify with Alice and her effort to make sense of an illogical story.

Carroll’s use of symbolism in the text of his work is not a recent discovery.  However, that it is thought to include the symbolic representation of mathmatical concepts is something I just noticed – and with that said, we take a closer look at the relationship between reinsurance and “extraordinary level of cat loss” State Farm announced last week and the associated miscalculation in the “branches of arithmetic” .

Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of arithmetic – ambition, distraction, uglification and derision. (Carroll)

As CLS has frequently pointed out in his comments, there is money to be made when an insurer uses the strategy of delay, deny, decieve. His theory was given unexpected support in Playing the “float” and the wisdom of Warren Buffett. Continue reading “the arithmetic of reinsurance and the miscalculation of ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision following Katrina”