State Farm grabs the torch back and burns Provost-Umphrey
Spraggins built his mansion of a motion without reference to the sand of the two assumptions Judge Senter accepted as fact in deciding to disqualify the Qui Tam attorneys – and, in doing so, provides compelling evidence of the lack of due process in the premises underlying Senter’s decision to disqualify the two Missouri firms.
Those two assumptions – the Rigsby sisters “purloined” (stole) documents and SKG paid for these documents via a “sham” agreement they had with Scruggs – have never been argued and proven in court; and, the only case where either could be argued is the Qui Tam. Judge Senter thus denied both the Rigsby sisters and their Qui Tam attorneys due process by considering both assumptions as fact based on inference drawn from testimony of the sisters in depositions taken and cited by State Farm.
Because the outcome of State Farm’s use of the answers to their biased questions in related motions was the disqualification of the relator’s attorneys, the company could become subject to claims of tortious interference if Senter’s decision stands.
SLABBED
5/23/8
Magnolia Tribune
