Tag: Watkins v State Farm

Aye Aye Captain Jack. Slabbed opens Davy Jones’ locker and finds an unethical Ed Rust hired gun.

There is a method to the madness here at Slabbed and one of my methods involves periodically revisiting certain news links we post to see if there are any belated comments worthy of follow-up. Such was the case with Anita Lee’s recent story on Chris McIntosh that we highlighted and sure enough there was a late comment by one Captain Jack that I could not let pass since it involves information we’ve been holding onto for at least a year and it is there we begin:

I agree with the other posters here. State Farm should be shut down. The federal government needs to investigate and prosecute. For details about State Farm’s bad behavior and the Oklahoma court ruling for sanctions and contempt against State Farm and attorney David V. Jones of San Antonio, Texas, check out http://badfaithinsurance.org and http://truthaboutmold.info/insurancenews.

Actually Cap there is so much more as the legal profession likes to keep attorneys like Jones as a dirty secret. Fortunately for us we had ring side seats via PACER when Jones enrolled in several Katrina cases involving State Farm in Louisiana including one where the lawyers for the plaintiffs tried to have Jones booted for lying on his pro hac vice affidavit only to have Judge Kurt Engelhardt, David Vitter’s former campaign manager, ignore a clear cut ethical violation. We’ll circle back to that.

Here is the deal from a layman’s perspective since we’ve written a good bit on the use of out of state hired guns. Sometimes an insurer has a case comes along that needs to go away no matter the means or methods.  Since not all of the insurance defense bar are unethical scudda beans sometimes ethical local firms need to be moved out of the way so the right kind of lawyer can come do the dirty work.  It worked for a while with James Robie in McIntosh v State Farm. Robie has hung more than a few skins on the wall for Ed Rust and State Farm but is just one man. Another is David Jones of San Antonio Texas.

There is no view like the view from the top moderating Slabbed and I’ll add it did not take long for Jones long to figure out we were onto him.  Continue reading “Aye Aye Captain Jack. Slabbed opens Davy Jones’ locker and finds an unethical Ed Rust hired gun.”

McKinsey consulted with State Farm on Xactware estimates following Katrina – Schafer v State Farm

If you type “McKinsey” into “Search” at the top of the page, you’ll find a multi-page listing of related SLABBED posts. What you will read, however, is far from a glowing report on a Company that touts, “Our alumni number more than 18,000, and work in virtually every business sector in over 80 countries” on its website.

One of the recurring questions about McKinsey is what role the Company’s consulting played in the way insurers handled policyholders’ claims following Hurricane Katrina. McKinsey was a named defendant in the anti-trust case filed by former Louisiana Attorney General Foti who accused the Company of “advising insurers to ‘stop ‘premium leakage’ by undervaluing claims using the tactics of deny, delay, and defend’ “.

After the case was dismissed, State Farm spokesman Phil Supple commented, “We felt these allegations were completely unfounded from the outset, and we’re pleased the court today agreed with our position”. State Farm continued to maintain that position in Schafer v State Farm, according to the Schafer’s Reply Memorandum in Support of Motion to Compel.

In its Opposition, State Farm stated: “McKinsey has not provided any services or documents to State Farm in connection with the adjustment or handling of Hurricane Katrina property claims, and McKinsey materials accordingly are wholly irrelevant here.” The Gourgues affidavit (attached to State Farm’s Opposition) states, in part: “Since that time [1998], however, McKinsey & Co. has provided no services to State Farm that have impacted the handling of Hurricane Katrina property claims in Louisiana.”

However, the Schafers also say, “This is just not true” and provide supporting documentation for their claim. Continue reading “McKinsey consulted with State Farm on Xactware estimates following Katrina – Schafer v State Farm”

Did I hear someone say they wanted to read Aaron Broussard’s depo in the pumps lawsuit?

Well then you’ve come to the right place.  I have read it and will update later with some analysis but I enjoyed researching the man behind this post about as much as I enjoyed reading the depo. (Yeah I know I’m weird that way). I won’t go into the specifics as Jefferson Parish residents well know the gory details but AB’s wiki entry is very enlightening as to the whoppers he told the national media after Katrina. Is it possible Mr Broussard does not know how to tell the truth? Frankly reading AB’s depo reminded me of the testimony of State Farm’s CEO Ed Rust in Watkins, a case out of Oklahoma City where the Farm screwed their policyholders after an F-5 tornado plowed through town. It took those poor souls 7 years to get State Farm to pay up. By comparison the developments with AB are moving at light speed.

Am I the only one that thinks Mr Broussard has a long lost relative in John Banner of Hogan’s Heroes fame? Below the fold I’ve embedded pictures of Mssrs. Banner and Broussard so our audience can decide for themselves. Continue reading “Did I hear someone say they wanted to read Aaron Broussard’s depo in the pumps lawsuit?”

State Farm talks "innocent" walks "guilty"

Although, as Sop said yesterday, there are days when SLABBED is a burden; but, when I’m having one of those days, I think about the slabbed and how every day is a burden when your insurance policy proves to be little more than paper.

All human learning is based on what we experience as we interact with our environment beginning at birth. Learning continues throughout the lifespan as we master a predictable sequence of increasingly complex concepts and skills; but, our experiences remain the source of our knowledge – a yardstick for measuring the authenticity of claims made about something are true.

Consequently, when I read State Farm spokesman’s Fraser Engerman comments in Anita Lee’s follow-up story on the dismissal of extra-contractual claims in McIntosh, I knew it was bullshit spin with just enough truth tucked in to fool those without the experience on the post-Katrina Coast to know better.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

State Farm’s spend-for-spin approach to Katrina litigation will prove eventually prove Lincoln right because what no one, including Engerman, can spin is that State Farm hasn’t walked the talk of the innocence he claims for far longer than the two years it has taken to get to this point. Continue reading “State Farm talks "innocent" walks "guilty"”

Evidence of out-of-state conduct next up in McIntosh v State Farm

Judge Senter issued a text only order yesterday giving counsel for McIntosh additional time to file their response.

TEXT ONLY ORDER granting Plaintiffs’ 1222 Motion for Extension of Time to File Response/Reply re 1215 MOTION in Limine No. 6: To Exclude Evidence of Out-of-State Conduct (Renewed). Plaintiffs’ Response shall be due no later than 7/16/2008. NO FURTHER WRITTEN ORDER SHALL ISSUE. Signed by District Judge L. T. Senter, Jr., on July 9, 2008.

Just days earlier, June 23 to be exact, ever faithful follower E.A. Renfroe had filed an objection to Senter’s April 23 Order requiring State Farm to enter individual objections to each witness McIntosh counsel proposed to call.

The Court did not set a schedule for filing such objections, but stated that the Court will rule on these objections at or before the pre-trial conference. [1187 at 2.] Accordingly, Renfroe files these objections to Plaintiffs’ proffered evidence of out-of-state conduct, some of which refers to State Farm’s use of independent adjusters from Renfroe and other adjusting services companies.

Plaintiffs have identified twelve documents and two witnesses pursuant to the Court’s April 23, 2008 order that they intend to offer at trial and which have not been previously disclosed. None of this evidence involves the McIntosh claim. Rather, it all relates to other, dissimilar claims against State Farm and its related entities, and cases to which Renfroe was not a party.

These cases are Watkins, et al. v. State Farm Fire and Casualty, et al. (“Watkins”) (Plaintiffs’ proffered Exhibits 1-8, 12, testimony of Messrs. Strzelec and Ryles), State Farm Lloyds v. Nicolau, 951 S.W. 2d 444 (Tex. 1997) (“Nicolau”) (Plaintiffs’ proffered Exhibits 10- 12, testimony of Messrs. Strzelec and Ryles), and Campbell v. State Farm (“Campbell”) (Plaintiffs’ proffered Exhibit 91). (emphasis added) Continue reading “Evidence of out-of-state conduct next up in McIntosh v State Farm”