Insurance Law

Scruggsipus Rex: Review of 'Kings of Tort'

Posted on May 19, 2011
Yeah, I know, what's with me, right? How many blogging comebacks am I going to make, and when am I done talking about Scruggs? I get asked about blogging all the time: when am I going to start again, when am I going to start again and stop quitting, and so forth...

WSJ editorial: With email revelations, it's another wonderful day in the neighborHood

Posted on July 28, 2010
Another great editorial from the Wall Street Journal, which long ago saw that Dickie Scruggs and Jim Hood, despite claiming to be clothed with righteousness, were walking around with no pants.  The backdrop of this opinion piece is the cache of emails that came from a document subpoena by State Farm in Ex rel...

Corban v. USAA: A few (more) words about anti-concurrent causation

Posted on July 20, 2010
  I've been meaning to write about this case for some time, and I even went down to Mississippi last October at the invitation of the University of Mississippi and spoke about the case at the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program conference a couple days before Halloween...

Scruggs Nation: the Secret Lives of PR Flacks

Posted on July 13, 2010
After a year's hiatus, I've been looking for the right time to start blogging again.  This is that time. The sun, which never sets on the Scruggs Nation, shines ever so brightly once again. I mean, I can't pass up a moment like this one, where there is a golden cache of emails out there in the public record, a used-to-be secret horde of communications between the inner Scruggs circle and the PR firm that was supposed to stage manage his triumph in Hurricane Katrina litigation...

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Memorial Day 2009

Posted on May 25, 2009
I first ran the post below for Memorial Day in 2006 as a tribute to my Dad, who served as a soldier during World War II.  This is the fourth straight year for this post, and I'll continue to run it every year.  I've thought of his service often, and have read many books about war and military history to try to understand what he did, what he went through, and also who he was...

Rigsby update: forgotten but not gone

Posted on March 19, 2009
For those who remember the heady Katrina litigation days of the Ride of the Rigsbys -- appearing on ABC's 20/20, acclaimed as alleged whistleblowers -- these times are very different for the sisters. They've slipped in the celebrity rankings to a most unenviable category: forgotten but not gone...

Insurance Person of the Year

Posted on March 17, 2009
Nothing like giving the readers a lot of advance notice before an ultra-high stakes award like this is finalized, right? I'm a bit tardy on this, but hey, it's not like I'm on the advisory board of the Insurance Law Center and might have been expected to post on this more than a day before the contest ends ...

Kodrin Katrina case: Fifth Circuit vacates punitive damage award against State Farm, upholds verdict of wind damage

Posted on March 13, 2009
Kodrin v. State Farm is one of the Katrina cases, which I wrote about previously here and here.  It was different from many Katrina cases in that, at least as far as what was presented to the jury, there was nothing to sort out about wind vs...

Scruggs Nation: Zach is back . . . to the halfway house

Posted on March 12, 2009
The Scruggs Nation has a fever, and the only prescription is more Scruggs. Well, OK, this news story is not about Dickie Scruggs, it's about Zach Scruggs, not the same, I know, but it will have to do.  Seems like whatever happened with his reporting from prison to the halfway house, it's not going to be a big deal...

'Partridge' family reunion: California v. Allstate

Posted on March 12, 2009
I saw this opinion, California v. Allstate, a couple days ago but other things interfered with blogging about it until now. This is a case about coverage for environmental pollution under the "sudden and unexpected" language found in old liability policies, and that is an interesting thing in itself, but what chiefly interested me about this case was the extended discussion of the Partridge case, an influential case that, in days gone by, was in part responsible for the creation of the modern anti-concurrent cause language found in first party policies...

Abracadabra: anti-concurrent cause and the search for 'illusory' insurance coverage

Posted on March 06, 2009
I was looking through my Bloglines feedreader last night under my folder labeled "anti-concurrent cause," and saw this really good post from the Slabbed blog.   This is a fascinating discussion not only of Katrina damage, but of the theory of illusory insurance coverage...

End days for False Claims Act case alleging massive insurer fraud?

Posted on March 04, 2009

Scruggs Nation: Zach was 'halfway' home

Posted on March 03, 2009

Return to blogging

Posted on March 02, 2009

Anti-concurrent cause: can an uncovered cause be superfluous to the analysis?

Posted on September 26, 2008
Despite the fact that anti-concurrent cause language has been around for quite a few years, if you go looking for the Anti-Concurrent Philosophy Library, you won't find it -- you'd be lucky to find enough to make up a slim book, much less a library or even a shelf in a library...

Contract claims settled in McIntosh, more thoughts on end of case

Posted on September 16, 2008
Here are some additional thoughts I promised about the end of the McIntosh case. -- You may remember my post from last week about the plaintiffs' dismissal of extra-contractual claims, or in other words, bad faith and punitive claims against State Farm...

McIntosh case punitive damages eliminated, case settled

Posted on September 09, 2008
Holy Cow! The McIntosh case, which I have referred to as the Verdun of insurance litigation, has been dismissed by the plaintiffs' own motion.  Given this litigation had long been the scene of intense trench warfare, consuming attorney fee dollars like five NFL offensive linemen chowing down on popcorn shrimp at an all-you-can-eat  buffet, it is surprising to see this turn of events...

Free Dickie

Posted on September 09, 2008
The smart new fashion statement for this fall, besides Sarah Palin eyeglasses and Obama flag lapel pins, is of course the Free Dickie T-shirt, as seen below.    I got this T-shirt from Alan Lange of the blog Y'all Politics.  Not sure what Alan's price points are, but he can tell you if you're interested...

Biden gives back Scruggs money: does this mean he will be the Veep nominee?

Posted on August 22, 2008
Q: How do you know you've hit rock bottom?  A:  When even a politician doesn't want your money.   This story says Delaware Sen. Joe Biden is donating some Scruggs campaign cash to charity, possibly to start offloading links to disreputable figures...

Blogging has been limited and infrequent, I know

Posted on August 22, 2008
I know a lot of people are disappointed I haven't been able to devote my usual time to this blog.  The workload I've had the last few months has been not only heavy -- that's normal for me -- but full of a vast number of motion practice deadlines...

Zach Scruggs' sentence begins August 25

Posted on August 15, 2008
This Sun Herald story by Anita Lee is a little old, but I'm just now getting back to some things I wanted to blog about before but didn't have the time for.  It says Zach Scruggs' prison sentence begins August 25 -- it had been scheduled to begin today -- and he will serve his time in a minimum-security federal prison in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the same place where Sid Backstrom will serve out his sentence...

Rare occurrence: good legal news for Scruggs

Posted on August 15, 2008
This story by Patsy Brumfield of the Daily Journal says Dickie Scruggs has won a legal victory of sorts: the Mississippi Supreme Court has stayed proceedings in the Lafayette County lawsuit Jones v. Scruggs, and agreed to decide whether the case should be sent to arbitration...

Greetings from the Oregon Coast

Posted on August 15, 2008
I'm posting today from the Oregon Coast Cyber Cafe in Manzanita, Oregon, which, when I looked it up on my PDA, sounded like a cool place to have some vastly overpriced decaf coffee and listen to some piped in tunes while blogging.  No offense, but it turns out to be a tiny little house behind a local grocery store converted into an office-like setting with some VFW-hall-like tables and some computers, and where you pay big ransom money for wireless time...

Federal grand jury may probe Scruggs' involvement in Wilson case

Posted on August 11, 2008
The deal Dickie Scruggs cut for five years of prison time in the attempted bribery of Judge Lackey does not keep the feds from trying to tack on another nickel or dime -- or more -- onto his sentence through investigation of possible conspiracy to influence Judge DeLaughter in another case...

What's up in Jim's neighborHood?

Posted on August 11, 2008
It's hard to tell when Jim Hood comes out of nowhere with some bizarre escapade like last week's press conference whether such an event is an objective in itself or merely an attempt to deflect attention from something else that will come up later.If you recall, last week Hood said he is: responsible for the additional State Farm Katrina settlements because he sued State Farm several months after they announced a deal with Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale to reopen thousands of claims files; the strongest man in the South, and he would prove it by walking right through a brick wall in front of reporters' eyes, except there was no brick wall around; and probably the reincarnation of the Pharaoh Thutmose III of Egypt, circa 1500 B...

Amazingly, Hood claims credit for State Farm payments, announces settlement of lawsuit

Posted on August 07, 2008
Another wonderful day in Jim's neighborHood. Mississippi AG Jim Hood announced a settlement of the breach of contract lawsuit he filed in June 2007 against State Farm.  Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney took issue with Hood's chest thumping, according to this story in the Sun Herald...

Stars in stripes: Dickie Scruggs reports to prison

Posted on August 05, 2008
I know I haven't been blogging enough where these two things happen in one day:a.  My wife tells me I haven't been blogging enough; and b.  Dr. Ed Duett, of Mississippi State, tells me folks in Mississippi are complaining that I haven't been blogging enough...

Colorado Court of Appeals: anti-concurrent cause provision bars coverage where covered snow combined with uncovered rot to cause loss

Posted on August 05, 2008
Thanks to one of my loyal readers who often points out anti-concurrent cause cases for passing along the Colorado Court of Appeals July 24 decision in Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency v. Northfield Ins. Co. This opinion is right on the money in its analysis of how anti-concurrent cause language works...

Everyone is asking where I am

Posted on July 31, 2008
Only about 35 emails today from people wondering why I'm not blogging on the Scruggs news -- I'd love to, but I have doing deadline stuff for paying clients the past two days. Maybe later tonight I can get at some of the back log. You don't know how much you miss blogging till you don't have the time to do it anymore...

Blogging schedule, July 30

Posted on July 30, 2008
I have some stuff having to do with Dickie Scruggs and the McIntosh case, but have some appointments first thing this morning, so posting will have to come later this morning (Pacific Time). 

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