Day: June 12, 2009

O’Keefe’s attorney challenges opposing counsel and moves to compel State Farm response

As I was reading O’Keefe’s Response in Opposition and Motion to Compel , I was reminded that people who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made.

It’s not easy to believe in justice when you look at the list of Katrina insurance cases with documents filed yesterday and note that  O’Keefe attorney Christopher C. Van Cleave was facing opposition that filed one or more documents in 17 cases.

Remember that as you read the latest from O’Keefe v State Farm. When SLABBED last reported on O’Keefe v State Farm, State Farm had filed an Emergency Motion to Quash Plaintiffs’ Excessive Discovery Requests.

Van Cleave clearly took State Farm’s position as a personal affront.  After all, he’s not in the sausage making business.  Continue reading “O’Keefe’s attorney challenges opposing counsel and moves to compel State Farm response”

SLABBED Daily – June 12

Senator Dodd’s wife and her purse are back in the news – this time it’s her ties to the health care industry.

The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of three health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry.

Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, serves on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., and Brookdale Senior Living, their Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Web sites show.

Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., is filling in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will soon start work on a health care bill.

Dodd, who as Senate Banking Committee chairman also has been an architect of the nation’s financial industry and housing rescue plans, did not file a new disclosure report outlining his personal finances as most other senators did in May. The Senate was releasing those reports Friday. Dodd sought a 90-day extension to file his report covering last year, giving him until mid-August to submit his report.

Other publicly available documents show Mrs. Dodd last year was one of the most highly compensated non-employee members of the Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. board, on which she has served since 2004. She earned $32,000 in fees and $109,587 in stock option awards last year, according to the company’s SEC filings….

We the people, of course, are supposed to believe it is Mrs. Dodd’s extraordinary ability that has corporate boards clammoring for her service, not her husband’s extraordinary power.  LOL

USAA’s admission of Claims Dumping in Corban ripples across the media

This story at the Insurance and Financial Advisor is too good to let lie. (Big H/T to Editilla at the Ladder) I think we’re fixing to find out if the people at the National Underwriter wield pom poms or if they are real journalists. Bob Graham has the story:

An insurance company admitted to shifting its costs to the federal National Flood Insurance Program in the first wind versus water damage case from Hurricane Katrina to reach Mississippi’s high court.

Insurance company USAA made the admission in oral arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court June 9 in a heavily watched case about whether carriers bear the burden of proof to decide the extent of property damage caused by wind and if carriers can void a homeowner’s wind coverage because of prior water damage.

A lower court had asked the state’s high court to interpret the “anti-concurrent causation” clause in homeowners’ policies as a precursor to it addressing a policyholder’s request for coverage from USAA.

The high court’s ruling is critical in establishing how insurance companies that wrote policies in Mississippi – and possibly other states — eventually handle claims resulting from the August 2005 hurricane. Continue reading “USAA’s admission of Claims Dumping in Corban ripples across the media”

Friday Morning Music

I have a busy day ahead as I catch up from being out of town. I hope to soon author posts on the Hugh Sibley case, Ashton O’Dwyer’s legal battles, Kuehn and my good buddy H Scot Spragins 😉 and an insurance/financial post on money, greed and disconnect.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEUE-wMQBv8]