Day: September 11, 2009

Rigsbys respond to Forensics – an impermissible attempt to relitigate issues that were correctly decided in the first place

SLABBED provided the post-hearing briefs – Read ‘em while they’re hot – briefs filed by State Farm, Haag, Forensic, and Rigsbys post-hearing in the Rigsby qui tam – and linked the documents filed by the defendants following Judge Senter’s Order – Evideniary disclosure is Michael Oher of Rigsby qui tam.

Claiming the Forensic motion for clarification is an impermissible attempt to relitigate issues that were correctly decided in the first place, today the Rigsbys filed Relators’ Opposition to Motion of Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corporation for Clarification of Order Denying Motion for Summary Judgment.

Forensic’s Motion to Reconsider should be denied because it merely rehashes the arguments Forensic previously made without pointing to any newly discovered evidence or identifying any manifest error. See also… (“F.R.Civ.P. 59. . . is not a vehicle for a litigant to ask the Court to reconsider adverse decisions it is simply unwilling to accept.”)…

Forensic, like Haag, attempts to hang its hat on the date the McIntosh claim was paid – grasping at a straw man, no doubt encouraged by State Farm.

Forensic argues that, notwithstanding the evidence of its conspiracy, the Relators’ claims against it should be dismissed for the simple reason that Forensic’s involvement in the McIntosh claim began after the flood claim had already been paid. Motion to Reconsider at 3-4. This argument is wrong for several reasons. Continue reading “Rigsbys respond to Forensics – an impermissible attempt to relitigate issues that were correctly decided in the first place”

“Dr Death” Anna Pou gets a second looksie

I was recently emailed the link to the recent NY Times Magazine article on Dr Pou which took a fresh look at the actions of several of the Docs at Memorial Hospital after Katrina and as one particularily well placed reader in the NOLA area put it, the emergent facts are “most disturbing”.

Minyard told me that his feelings were less sympathetic than he let Pou know. He believed he would have at least tried to save Emmett Everett. There must have been a way to get the 380-pound man downstairs, he said he thought. It also bothered Minyard that documentation suggested that few of the elderly patients who died were being treated for pain.

Minyard reached out to the noted University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan for more advice. Caplan reviewed the records and concluded that all nine LifeCare patients on the seventh floor were euthanized, and that the way the drugs were given was “not consistent with the ethical standards of palliative care that prevail in the United States.” Those standards are clear, Caplan wrote, in that the death of a patient cannot be the goal of a doctor’s treatment.

Evidently New Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro thinks so as well as it was announced that his office has reopened the criminal investigation of the events at Memorial Hospital. Even better for the cause of justice is that a drunk won’t be in charge of running it.

Will Dr Pou’s use of the local State Farm defense law firm and PR firm Continue reading ““Dr Death” Anna Pou gets a second looksie”

Chaney closes door to State Farm’s proposed 45% rate increase – a screen door to let AIR in and out

The Sun Herald reports Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney on Wednesday told State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. he has temporarily denied its request to increase homeowners’ rates by 45 percent in the state’s three coastal counties. h/t Y’all Politics

Chaney said he notified the company he needs more information. Chaney said he ultimately intends to deny the request, but: “We’re open to negotiating with them.”  He said it could be months before a final decision is made…

State Farm spokesman David Majors said the company intends to fulfill Chaney’s request.  “We’ll provide as much information as we can and work with the department with any request so that we can get the rate we’ve requested in the lower three counties,” Majors said.

State Farm is the largest insurer in Mississippi. Chaney said the company has about 26,000 policies in coastal Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, which were hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005…

Chaney said at a press luncheon this week in Jackson that he didn’t think State Farm’s 45 percent request is justified. “State Farm told us they would not write any new business on the Gulf Coast even if we gave them the rate increase,” Chaney said Tuesday. “I don’t know what the incentive would be to even give them a rate increase.”

FireShot capture #031 - 'ISO - ISO Family of Companies' - www_iso_com_About-ISO_ISO-Family-of-Companies AIRDuring those “months”, Chaney will receive a report from AIR Worldwide.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and wind engineering firm AIR Worldwide have agreed to terms on a contract on a cost/benefit study required by the Mississippi Legislature leading to development of a hurricane wind damage mitigation.

AIR  – a member of the ISO Family of Companies – said it will also recommend the best ways to Continue reading “Chaney closes door to State Farm’s proposed 45% rate increase – a screen door to let AIR in and out”