I guess John O’Brien just didn’t have time to make the hearing in Oxford the other day, so LNL had to send the, um, rather interesting Ms. Hoggatt (h/t a reader) in his stead. But O’Brien’s back on the story this morning, noting that on Monday the Katrina Litigation Group — with Sparky Lovelace doing the honors — filed in the Southern District of Mississippi a Notice of Supplemental Authority (3-page pdf) alerting Judge L.T. Senter that Senior Judge C. Roger Vinson has dropped the Alabama criminal-contempt case against Dickie Scruggs in its tracks.
Writing from Gulfport, O’Brien ledes, “The remaining members of the former Scruggs Katrina Group are hoping a federal judge in Alabama has proven their point. …”
The notice was filed in the civil lawsuit brought by Pamela and Thomas McIntosh against State Farm. They allege State Farm intentionally misrepresented the amount of damage caused by wind (covered by their policy) and water (covered by a federal program) after Hurricane Katrina.
The firms, now called the Katrina Litigation Group, say State Farm and Renfroe “extensively cited the record from that litigation and discussed Judge (William) Acker’s request for a criminal contempt prosecution against Richard Scruggs as support for their [motions to disqualify our fannies].”
Though Sparky’s new Notice is dated March 3, O’Brien quotes not from it but from a January 28 filing of his (sans link):
“State Farm’s and its counsel’s dishonest personal attacks on Plaintiffs’ chosen attorneys have crossed the line that separates aggressive advocacy from improper and vexatious litigation tactics.”
“State Farm’s Counsel have abused their roles as Officers of the Court by cobbling together gossip, out-of-context quotes and innuendo to poison the jury pool, confuse, the facts and distort the law.”
So there. Don’t speak to us of Improper and Vexatious Litigation Tactics, nuh-uh!
