Evidence Needed to Use Staged Accident Claim as Defense
Post 5025
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gVJmjFtC, see the full video at https://lnkd.in/gxEUJruU and at https://lnkd.in/gnd2BfgN, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5000 posts.
In State Farm Fire And Casualty Company v. Felix A. Quinones, et al, INDEX No. 152505/2021, 2025 NY Slip Op 30754(U), MOTION SEQ. No. 002, Supreme Court, New York County (March 7, 2025) State Farm, sought to disclaim coverage for medical treatment provided to the defendants, who were involved in an automobile collision on February 26, 2020.
The court granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in part, declaring that State Farm has no obligation to pay claims submitted by Grand Medical Supply Corp. due to Quinones’s failure to appear for examinations under oath (EUOs).
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
In this declaratory judgment action, plaintiff seeks to disclaim coverage for medical treatment provided to defendants Felix A. Quinones, Miguel Burgos and Kevin Gonzalez for injuries Quinones, Burgos, and Gonzalez allegedly sustained in an automobile collision involving a car owned and operated by Quinones in which Burgos and Gonzalez were passengers.
In support of its motion, plaintiff submited an affidavit by Claim Specialist Dominique Wafer, transcripts from the EUOs of Burgos and Gonzalez, the certified police report and amended police report from the subject collision, and the declarations page of Quinones’s insurance policy with plaintiff.
THE DECISION
The court granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in part due to Felix A. Quinones’s failure to appear for examinations under oath (EUOs).
Additionally the purported inconsistencies and inaccuracies in these transcripts raised serious credibility issues they did not meet the heavy burden required to obtain summary judgment.
ZALMA OPINION
Insurers are faced with insurance fraud and claims from staged accidents on a regular basis. The insurers and their investigators are compelled by law to conduct a full and thorough investigation by its claims or special fraud investigative unit. In this case there were many elements of a staged accident produced in the motion for summary judgment but the court was not convinced – on a motion – that the insurer proved the accident was staged. Every insurer faced with this type of attempted fraud must do a thorough investigation and produce convincing evidence that the accident was staged recognizing that all of the available red flags exist that is not evidence of fraud or of a staged accident.
(c) 2025 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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Go to X @bzalma; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYkIn State Farm Fire And Casualty Company v. Felix A. Quinones, et al, INDEX No. 152505/2021, 2025 NY Slip Op 30754(U), MOTION SEQ. No. 002, Supreme Court, New York County (March 7, 2025) S
Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYk
Insurance Expert May Not Testify to Speculative and Contains Unsupported Conclusions.
Posted on September 18, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at and at https://rumble.com/v7fmifw-expert-may-only-testify-to-what-experience-supports.html
In Michele A. Over, and The Estate Of Paul R. Over v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and State Farm Fire And Casualty Company, Civil Action No. 23-cv-02243-PAB-STV, United States District Court, D. Colorado (September 14, 2026) Michele and Paul Over sued State Farm Fire and State Farm Auto over hail-damage and stolen-vehicle claims.
The operative dispute concerned State Farm Auto’s motion to exclude or limit opinions from plaintiffs’ insurance-industry expert, Aaron Castillo. Castillo.
Law
The proponent of expert testimony must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that an expert is qualified and that the opinions are helpful, sufficiently grounded, and reliably derived and applied. Experience-based opinions must explain how the...
150 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud
Post 4846
Posted on September 17, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/g8rh3JBX and https://lnkd.in/gmkdy-9C, In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.
FACTS
In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.
FACTS
Thomas Addaquay controlled United Consolidated Accounting and Business Services (UC), nominally a check-cashing business.
The government proved a three-stage tax-refund scheme that converted the resulting refund checks into usable funds through ...
Major Fraud Perpetrator Asserts Fifth Amendment Privilege to Avoid Prosecution
Post 5489
Posted on September 14, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Fraudster Refuses to Answer Questions About His Alleged Fraud
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr and at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr
In Great American Insurance Co. v. Gemstone Property Management, LLC, et al., No. 23-cv-9100 (LJL), United States District Court, S.D. New York (September 8, 2026) Great American Insurance Company alleged that it was defrauded through a scheme in which Subin Associates, LLP recruited individuals to stage construction-site injuries, arranged unnecessary medical treatment and litigation funding, and pursued fraudulent personal-injury claims.
Luis Manuel Garcia Salcedo, resulted in a $6 million settlement. Non-party Jose Hernandez allegedly worked as an assistant manager at Subin, operated Hernandez Associates, and owned litigation-funding companies that shared office space with Subin and provided services to its clients.
After Great American ...
Employee Report of Fraud Results in Damages Suit After Qui Tam Suit Settled
No Statutory Hearing Right Arose Because No Dental Commission Complaint License Suspension, Revocation, Or Sanction Occurred.
Post 4855
Posted on October 2, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In Abbas Mohammadi et al. v. William M. Tong et al., No. AC 47598, Court of Appeals of Connecticut (September 29, 2026) Abbas Mohammadi owned and operated Columbia Dental, P.C., which provided dental services through multiple Connecticut offices; Columbia Oral Maxillofacial Imaging, LLC served as the billing entity.
From April 2012 to February 27, 2013, Columbia Dental employed Brittany Ames Mahoney as a dental assistant. During her employment, Mahoney claimed to have discovered certain billing irregularities, including, but not limited to, false and fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted to the Department of Social Services for services rendered to Medicaid beneficiaries. Mahoney filed a complaint and an affidavit in the United States District Court for the District of...
Another Anniversary for Barry Zalma, Inc
Posted on October 1, 2026 by Barry Zalma
From October 1, 1979 – 2026
Post 4854
Read the full issue of ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ZIFL-10-01-2026.pdf Forty seven years ago today I left the world of the employed and became an entrepreneur by opening my own law firm. The law practice was incorporated shortly thereafter as Barry Zalma, Inc.
When I opened for business on October 1, 1979, I had no clients and no certainty that I would have any in the future. I had borrowed money from the bank to carry me through the first six months and was concerned about my ability to pay the loan with my third child about to be born.
Much to my surprise and pleasure, on October 1, 1979, at 8:10 a.m., the best claims handler in the London market, Alan Warboys, called from London and provided me with my first case as an independent lawyer to represent Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London. He, and the Lloyd’s Underwriters he represented, showed faith in me as a lawyer and insurance expert. Alan is now, although ...
Defendants Successfully Moved for Summary Judgment
Post 4854
Posted on September 30, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In Jeffrey Wayne Phillips v. Creative Website Studios, et al., No. 5:23-CV-568-BO-BM, United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Western Division (September 28, 2026) the Court needed to rule on the order and memorandum and recommendation (“M&R”) of the Magistrate.
Jeffrey Wayne Phillips had contracted with Creative Website Studios and SR Telecommunications for website and hosting services. He alleged that defendants repeatedly billed him for hosting periods he had already paid for and later took down his website. Phillips claimed the outage prevented him from bidding on U.S. government security contracts and sought roughly $300 million in consequential damages.
LAW
Under North Carolina law, fraud requires a false material representation or concealment, intent and effect of deception, resulting damage, and reasonable reliance. Obtaining property by false pretenses similarly requires an ...
