As I have noted in ruling on other State Farm motions to disqualify Relators’ experts, it is not necessary that a designated expert hold or express his opinion on any issue in dispute that lies outside the expert’s field.
Does anyone else spot a trend? It can’t be my imagination when this is my second post of the day reporting “you should know but” – Orders in Katrina qui tam litigation. Judge Senter’s Memorandum Opinion explains:
The Court has before it the motion [709] of State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (State Farm) to exclude the testimony of Louis G. Fey, Jr. (Fey), one of the Relators’ expert witnesses. Relators have identified Fey as an expert on insurance claims adjusting practices in general and the claims-adjusting practices State Farm followed in dealing with the McIntosh flood claim in particular. State Farm has identified its own expert witness, one of its employees, Michael Ferrier (Ferrier), to express his opinion on matters similar to many of those outlined in Fey’s report. The opinions of these two experts stand in stark contrast.
Based upon his review of the State Farm flood claim file, the State Farm wind claim file, the engineering reports prepared by Brian Ford (Ford) and John Kelly (Kelly), memoranda filed on behalf of State Farm in this action, documents prepared and promulgated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), photographs of the McIntosh property (post-Katrina), and the testimonies of Alexis King and Ferrier, Fey formed the opinion that several of the actions State Farm took in adjusting the McIntosh claims (for flood damage and for wind damage) breached State Farm’s fiduciary obligation to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and failed to conform to the standard practices followed by the insurance industry in adjusting property damage claims.
Fey concluded that State Farm improperly used the XactTotal program, rather than the Xactimate program, to assess the flood damage to the McIntosh property. Fey concluded that State Farm’s representatives acted inappropriately in response to the first engineering report (the Ford report) it obtained for the McIntosh property. Fey is also of the opinion that State Farm handled both the engineering reports (the Kelly report and the Ford report) improperly in that it did not put a copy of both reports in both the wind damage file and in the flood damage file and it did not furnish a copy of both reports to the insured…
At this point, it is apparently undisputed that State Farm used its XactTotal program rather than its Xactimate program to assess the flood damage at the McIntosh property. Continue reading “Breaking News – Judge Senter denies State Farm’s Motion to Exclude Testimony of Relator’s Expert Witness Louis Fey (a Rigsby Qui Tam update)”