A flurry of pretrial motions have been filed by State Farm prior to its March jury trial with a pair of sisters accusing it of defrauding the U.S government following Hurricane Katrina.

According to the docket report, State Farm has filed numerous motions “in limine” to stop certain evidence from being used during the trial with Cori and Kerri Rigsby, who were independent adjustment claims adjusters employed by a firm used by State Farm after Katrina.

The Rigsbys filed a well-publicized False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against State Farm in April 2006. The sisters allege State Farm doctored engineering reports after the hurricane so it could allegedly send losses to the National Flood Insurance Program.

A trial date of March 25 was set in June last year.

Among other things, State Farm is asking District Court Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden in the Southern District of Mississippi to restrict the Rigsbys' attorneys from introducing government reports, making any reference to government investigations or grand jury proceedings, and questioning Thomas and Pamela McIntosh, who separately filed a landmark bad-faith suit with one-time prominent plaintiffs' attorney Rickard “Dickie” Scruggs against the insurer after Katrina.

The McIntoshes settled with State Farm for $250,000 and cleared the insurer of all bad-faith allegations in September 2008 but it was their insurance claim that was at the center of the Rigsbys' allegations.

The sisters took thousands of State Farm documents and handed them over to Scruggs, who is now serving time in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to the attempted bribery of a Mississippi Circuit Court judge. The documents were supposedly proof the insurer was guilty of fraud.

Now years later, the court has decided the Rigsbys' testimony during the whistle-blower lawsuit can only be related to the McIntosh claim—the only claim in which the sisters have firsthand knowledge.

Also new to the docket is a ruling by Ozerden that State Farm cannot use a supplemental jury questionnaire to weed prospective jurors.

The only motion “in limine” the Rigsbys have filed was one to prevent State Farm from using allegations against them in a countersuit during this trial. Another federal judge, who has since died, previously ruled the countersuit suit should remain separate, so as not to confuse the jurors.

Special Reports /

State Farm, Rigsby Sisters File Pretrial Motions for March Trial

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