State Farm v. The Katrina Lawyers: An Update
Developments in State Farm-related Katrina cases since US District Judge L.J. Senter’s momentous ruling earlier this month in McIntosh v. State Farm:
Yes, he really meant it: If there were any doubt that his ruling applied to any attorneys even peripherally related to Scruggs Katrina Group/Katrina Litigation Group cases, it was dispelled on April 16 when Judge Senter disqualified the Taylor-Martino law firm from representing McIntosh because the firm had provided assistance to one of the KLG firms.
Citing Judge Senter’s ruling, US District Judge Halil Ozerden on April 11 disqualified KLG, the Rigsby documents and the Rigsby sisters as witnesses from another Southern District of Mississippi case, Kreeger v. State Farm. US District Judge William Barbour on April 16 did likewise in Shows v. State Farm, the RICO case filed last year by SKG.
State Farm moved to dismiss ex rel. Rigsby (the qui tam case) for lack of jurisdiction, to disqualify the Rigsbys’ lawyers, and for summary judgment. The two Kansas City law firms representing the Rigsby sisters (Graves, Bartle & Marcus and Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny) filed an emergency motion to stay proceedings pending a ruling on the motion to disqualify. State Farm fired back immediately, pointing out among other things that the Kansas City firms are already disqualified under Judge Senter‘s ruling.
The motion to disqualify the Kansas City firms accuses several of the attorneys — including (fired US Attorney for Missouri) Todd Graves — of being present when the Rigsbys met with Dickie Scruggs in his trailer on the beach at Pascagoula in 2006 and illegally accessing password protected proprietary documents belonging to State Farm. This was based on Kerri Rigsby’s own deposition. Graves and Tony DeWitt (of BFR&G) went on the attack with a public hissy fit (here), specifically denying that they were ever on State Farm’s computer system. But that was a deliberate dodge, because that’s not what State Farm claims they did. They carefully avoided denying being present at the trailer meetings and accessing documents that the Rigsbys downloaded. Rossmiller has all the Rigsby depositions here.
On Monday, the Kansas City lawyers responded to State Farm‘s disqualification motions, and both Graves and DeWitt filed affidavits. Graves acknowledges being present at one of the two trailer meetings, DeWitt at both. NMC at folo has an excellent analysis here.
Rossmiller notes here that Don Barrett of the Barrett Law Office, one of the now-disqualified KLG firms, advised clients in an April 18 letter that the Provost-Umphrey law firm has agreed to take their cases. A commenter notes: “The address for the Nashville Provost-Umphrey office is the same as that on Barrett Law Office letterhead for the Nashville office. Remarkable.”
Letter of Apology Blog
4/29/8
