Topic: Catastrophe Claims

In a letter dated June 25, 2007, the Consumer Federation of America urged insurance commissioners around the country to ban the use of anti-concurrent-causation clauses (“ACC clauses”)  in insurance policies. 

A Northern District of Alabama judge recently asked federal prosecutors to charge Mississippi plaintiff’s attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs with criminal contempt.  It is alleged that Scruggs violated a preliminary injunction issued in December 2006, which ordered him to turn over all documents secretly copied by two whistleblowers, Corgi Rigsby Moran and Kerri Rigsby. 

On June 11, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed a civil action again State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. in the Circuit Court of Hinds County, Mississippi, alleging breach of contract, bad faith breach of contract, and breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing.  The suit arises out of State Farm’s alleged failure to honor an agreement for a mass settlement of claims arising out of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. 

On June 21, Allstate Insurance announced that it settled a post-trial legal dispute with its insured, Robert Weiss, in a significant Hurricane Katrina-related damages case. 

A Katrina-related whistleblower lawsuit originally filed under seal on August 2, 2006, was recently unsealed and made public. 

Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing oral argument on the appeal of a Katrina-related coverage decision by U.S. District Court Judge Stanwood R. Duval, Jr.,  issued in November 2006.