Get out your best seersucker suit! The Rigsby sisters are taking on State Farm…in a courtroom…more than seven years after Hurricane Katrina!

Having covered the courts for a daily New Jersey newspaper before I got myself into the depths of insurance-news reporting, there has been no greater opportunity for me to geek-out on court documents than Rigsby v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.—a whistleblower lawsuit filed in Mississippi in April 2006.

The case is finally scheduled for trial March 25 after years of pre-trial motions to dismiss the case, limit its scope, and disqualify potential witnesses. Not to mention the downfall of the Rigsbys' prominent plaintiffs' attorney and the death of Senior District Judge L.T. Senter, whose rulings were always a good read.

I'm disappointed if you don't know the details. You must remember the report on ABC News 20/20.

There they were, independent insurance adjusters Cori and Kerri Rigsby—with their State Farm jackets on and their allegations of “a good neighbor gone bad.”

The Rigsbys' False Claims Act lawsuit alleges State Farm doctored reports after Katrina to shift losses onto the federal government by calling wind losses, flood losses. Flood losses aren't covered by a standard private homeowners' policy. The government's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) handles these losses, if you have a policy.

The Rigsbys stole thousands of State Farm documents they say prove the nation's top insurer was up to no good. The sisters brought them to state and federal investigators and (cue a departure off a private plane!) Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, of tobacco fame. The “Tort King” himself.

(I leave it up to you to find out what state and federal investigators did with this information. There was a lot of talk, but, in the end, not much action. State reports didn't praise the insurer, but didn't condemn their practices. The feds decided not to get involved in the case.)

Filed under seal, Scruggs made the Rigsby lawsuit public and filed many more so-called “wind vs. water” claims—as did many others. We were introduced to the tongue-tying “anti-concurrent causation clause.” Plaintiffs' attorneys said the policy language was ambiguous. Insurers' lawyers said otherwise. After lots of courtroom argument, insurers prevailed.

“If this isn't criminal, nothing is,” Scruggs told ABC of State Farm's post-Katrina actions.

Whoops.

Apparently Scruggs did not think attempted bribery of a Mississippi circuit court judge seemed criminal. Scruggs was looking for a favorable ruling in a suit over the split of a settlement in a separate State Farm Katrina-related case. However, promising a federal judgeship to a circuit court judge wearing a wire is not advised. Scruggs is serving some time in a federal prison.

But the Rigsbys picked up new representation and they are on their way. Hey, I give them a little credit. I have no idea how much this has cost them, or who's picking up the tab. They could've given up long ago. Some things came to light that were pretty embarrassing too. They were paid by Scruggs as “consultants.” That's another no-no. What they can testify about has been narrowed to one house owned by Thomas and Pamela McIntosh—the only home for which a judge has said the Rigsbys have first-hand knowledge of State Farm's alleged government fraud.

(Another note: McIntosh settled a separated suit against State Farm and, in going so, cleared the insurer of wrongdoing.)

After State Farm's last attempt to dismiss the case was struck down, August J. Matteis Jr. of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley, now representing the Rigsbys, said the sisters are “absolutely ready to go.”

“They are excited and anxious to do this,” he added.

State Farm said it's “eager to answer these allegations” and is “confident the evidence at trial will show its conduct was fully appropriate.”

Well, then. Ding. Ding.

Special Reports /

The Wait is Over; Rigsbys Set to Get Their Day Versus State Farm

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