Acquittal is not a Finding of Innocence
Barry Zalma
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Probable Cause is not a High Bar
People who attempt insurance fraud are always upset when the fraud fails. When that failure results in an arrest and trial, the upset grows.
In Joseph Fehl v. Borough Of Wallington; et al, No. 21-3019, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit (January 25, 2023) Joseph Fehl sued alleging civil rights violations. Finding no material facts in dispute, the District Court granted the Defendants’ motions for summary judgment.
FACTS
Fehl served as a volunteer EMT and firefighter for the Borough of Wallington. He filed for worker’s compensation, claiming he was “hit by [a] car” during an emergency response. Fehl was indicted for criminal insurance fraud and tampering with public records. Following trial, a jury acquitted him of those charges.
Based on the acquittal, Fehl sued. The District Court granted the Defendants’ motions for summary judgment.
PROBABLE CAUSE
Police officers are not required to correctly resolve conflicting evidence and their determinations of credibility need not, in retrospect, be accurate. For those reasons, probable cause is not a high bar.
Consider Fehl’s statement in his benefits application that he was struck by a car, with the absence of any corroborating physical evidence and that after he was confronted, changed his story conceding that he might have merely tripped and fallen.
The finding of probable cause is not negated by the jury verdict.
CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS
To state a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest or retaliatory prosecution, a plaintiff must plead and prove the lack of probable cause for the criminal charge. Fehl’s arrest and prosecution were, contrary to his claims, supported by probable cause.
ZALMA OPINION
The facts established that there was clear probable cause to arrest Fehl, especially after he changed the claim that he was hit by a car to he tripped and fell, established a lack of veracity in the claim and an attempt to defraud the employer to obtain Workers’ Compensation fraud.
(c) 2023 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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Post number 5368
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In Prime Insurance Company, Inc. v. Medicab Transportation, LLC, Jason Rhodes, and Dale Johnson v. Prime Insurance Company, Inc and Prime Property & Casualty Insurance, Inc. No. 2:24-cv-421-SPC-KRH, United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Fort Myers Division (June 3, 2026) Medicab, a paratransit company, bought two policies in 2021: a Business Auto Policy from PPCI and a Commercial Liability Policy from Prime. Both policies, as originally written, appeared to cover injuries arising from loading and unloading patients from Medicab vans.
After a patient, Margaret St. Aubin, fell while being unloaded from a van and suffered injuries, her Estate made a $1 million demand. Prime and its claims administrator concluded that the Commercial Policy’s loading/unloading language had been included by mutual mistake, because...
Full Faith and Credit Act Controlled
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/evHXiiFE and at https://zalma.com/blog.
Posted on June 9, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Post number 5368
Posted on June 9, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In Prime Insurance Company, Inc. v. Medicab Transportation, LLC, Jason Rhodes, and Dale Johnson v. Prime Insurance Company, Inc and Prime Property & Casualty Insurance, Inc. No. 2:24-cv-421-SPC-KRH, United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Fort Myers Division (June 3, 2026) Medicab, a paratransit company, bought two policies in 2021: a Business Auto Policy from PPCI and a Commercial Liability Policy from Prime. Both policies, as originally written, appeared to cover injuries arising from loading and unloading patients from Medicab vans.
After a patient, Margaret St. Aubin, fell while being unloaded from a van and suffered injuries, her Estate made a $1 million demand. Prime and its claims administrator concluded that the Commercial Policy’s loading/unloading language had been included by mutual mistake, because...
