Senter will not disqualify clerk
Clerk's Allstate suit had been settled
by ANITA LEE
GULFPORT - U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. has denied a motion from State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. asking that he disqualify one of his two law clerks from working on Hurricane Katrina lawsuits filed against the company.
Read has not participated in cases filed against Allstate, Senter pointed out in the order.
Read settled his lawsuit with the insurer to his satisfaction, according to a Jan. 17 order dismissing it. State Farm maintained because his case involved wind-water issues, he should not be researching legal issues for Senter in similar State Farm cases. Read and Allstate disagreed over how much of his damage was caused by wind, covered under his policy, and how much from storm surge, excluded from coverage.
Senter wrote, "I am satisfied that Read's experience in sustaining property damage during Hurricane Katrina and in resolving his litigation with Allstate has not deprived Read of the ability to discharge his duties as a law clerk in connection with other Katrina insurance cases ..."
Read worked as Senter's law clerk, researching legal issues, in the first jury trial of a Hurricane Katrina case, Broussard v. State Farm. On Jan. 11, Senter ruled State Farm should pay a Biloxi couple policy limits because the company failed to prove water caused all the damage.
A State Farm expert testified wind could have caused roof damage before water washed away the home, but he could not say with certainty how much money the Broussards might be owed. A jury then awarded the Broussards $2.5 million in punitive damages, finding State Farm had acted in bad faith.
Senter later reduced the award to $1 million.
Senter's order refusing to disqualify Read also says he can work on cases filed against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., another major insurer. Earlier this year, Senter ruled in Nationwide's favor when he found most of a homeowner's damage was caused by storm surge. The house was still standing and an engineer testified for Nationwide about how much damage the wind caused.
State Farm also has asked Senter to recuse himself from presiding over a hearing Wednesday on a lawsuit filed against the company by Ocean Springs homeowner Judy Guice.
Guice is asking Senter to certify her lawsuit as a class-action case and to declare that represented policyholders - those with only slabs or pilings left after Katrina - are entitled to policy limits because State Farm was unable to show what part of their loss storm surge caused.
State Farm says Senter should recuse himself because two potential members of the Guice class are court personnel, Magistrate Judge John M. Roper and law clerk Terri Brown, who works for Judge Louis Guirola.
Both Guirola, who is suing Nationwide, and Roper have recused themselves from hearing Katrina cases. Roper's attorney said he would not be in the class-action litigation because, although his home was a total economic loss, it was not reduced to a slab.
Senter has not yet ruled on the motion to recuse himself, filed Thursday. He is the only federal judge in South Mississippi currently presiding over about 1,000 Katrina lawsuits.
United Policyholders is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 and dedicated to educating the public on insurance issues and consumer rights. UP publishes educational materials and serves as a resource for individual and business policyholders and residents of communities with insurance problems. UP’s Amicus Project provides information to courts of law to support policyholders’ legal rights. UP unites policyholders and their advocates by sharing information. Write to UP at 110 Pacific Ave., PMB 262, San Francisco, CA. 94111, call us at (510) 763-9740, or visit our website at www.unitedpolicyholders.org.
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