Insurance Law

Scruggs Nation, January 30

By David Rossmiller

This document, a transcript of the August 18, 2006 hearing before Judge DeLaughter in the Wilson v. Scruggs case, is what I've been reading the last few days, when I can grab a few minutes here and there.  I'm in a stretch where blogging time is limited, and I will have more to say about this case and this transcript later, but as the audience for this blog includes a lot of really sharp people who like to read and interpret documents for themselves, I want to put this out in the public domain.  The Scruggs side was argued by Tim Balducci, which will also be of interest to many. 

Two places I will call your attention to:

1. Look on pages 16-25, where the judge discusses the preclusive effect of a federal ruling in the Luckey case, and finds that the Wilson-Scruggs agreement creates an express trust and a fiduciary duty from Scruggs to Wilson.  Remember that the special master's recommendation had been denied months earlier -- one would think the question of fiduciary duty and express/constructive trust would have to come before the special master's findings were addressed, not after.  There may be good reasons, for this, of course, that I don't know about.
2. Read pages 83 to 120, where the court granted Scruggs' motion to strike Wilson's expert and also decided to ignore a $228,000 accounting error that the court's expert found and to adopt the figures offered by Scruggs' expert. 

This isn't the full story of the case by any means, but it makes for some interesting, and curious, reading.

Full post as published by Insurance Coverage Law Blog on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).