A settlement conference slated to take place between State Farm and two sisters accusing the insurer of rigging engineering reports after Hurricane Katrina has been canceled.
“Based on a review of the confidential settlement documents recently submitted by the attorneys, the court is of the opinion that conducting a settlement conference at this time would not be productive and would not advance settlement prospects,” reads a Jan. 23 notice in the docket for the case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
With the Jan. 30 settlement conference now kaput, it would seem as though State Farm and Cori and Kerri Rigsby—two former independent claims adjusters for a firm hired by State Farm after the 2005 hurricane—are headed for trial at the end of March—about seven years after the Rigsby sisters filed their whistleblower suit against State Farm
The Rigsbys filed a well-publicized False Claims Act lawsuit against State Farm in April 2006. The pair alleges State Farm doctored engineering reports after Katrina to inflate flood damage so the company could send losses to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Flood and storm surge losses are not covered by a standard homeowners' insurance policy.
The years following the lawsuit filing are marked with national print and broadcast news, public outrage, the demise of once-prominent attorney Dickie Scruggs, a long list of involved attorneys, the death of the presiding judge, and countless pre-trial motions to dismiss the case, limit its scope, and disqualify potential witnesses.
The notice canceling the settlement conference is about the 1,000th entry in the docket. Other recent entries include numerous pretrial motions “in limine” to stop certain evidence from being used during the trial.
Also within the last month, Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden ruled State Farm cannot use a supplemental jury questionnaire to weed prospective jurors.
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