McClenny Moseley & Associates is not Responsible for All Case Failures
Post 5059
Court Concludes There is No Excuse for Failure to Promptly Serve a Governmental Agency
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gmFRP8Ef, see the full video at https://lnkd.in/gjrj3NVk and at https://lnkd.in/gGCbuy8Y, and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5050 posts.
In Jimmie Legros v. Weston Property & Casualty Insurance Co, No. 6:22-CV-04401, United States District Court, W.D. Louisiana, Lafayette Division (April 3, 2025) after Weston became insolvent the suit was amended to change the defendant to the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (“LIGA”) late.
LIGA moved to Dismiss and the Magistrate judge concluded that the evidence, the law, and the arguments of the parties, recommended that the Motion to Dismiss be granted.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Plaintiff filed the present action on August 25, 2022, against Weston Property & Casualty Insurance Company after suffering property damage during Hurricane Laura. The case was stayed from October 21, 2022, to March 30, 2023, due to the suspension and termination of Plaintiff’s prior counsel. On November 30, 2023, Plaintiff’s current counsel enrolled and on February 5, 2024, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Substitute party requesting that LIGA be substituted as Defendant for Weston Property & Casualty Insurance Company which was granted on May 22, 2024.
LIGA moved to dismiss because they were not properly served until 134 days after their substitution in violation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m). Plaintiff conceded that LIGA was not served within 90 days as required by Rule 4(m) but requests the Court to deny LIGA’s Motion as Plaintiff can establish good cause of the delayed service as this case was due to Plaintiff’s prior counsel.
LAW AND ANALYSIS
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(m) provides that “[i]f a defendant is not served within 90 days after the complaint is filed, the court-on motion or on its own after notice to the plaintiff-must dismiss the action without prejudice against that defendant or order that service be made within a specified time.” The district court has broad discretion in determining whether to dismiss an action for insufficient service under Rule 12(b)(5).
It is undisputed that LIGA was not served within the required 90 days once it was substituted as Defendant. To establish good cause, a litigant must demonstrate at least as much as would be required to show excusable neglect, as to which simple inadvertence or mistake of counsel or ignorance of the rules usually does not suffice.
Plaintiff contends he can establish good cause for delayed service. Specifically, per Plaintiff, this matter was previously handled by McClenny Moseley & Associates (“MMA”) and upon their dismissal by the various courts in multiple jurisdictions many clients were left without representation for extended periods of time.
According to Plaintiff, the delay in effecting service was due to the extraordinary circumstances resulting from MMA having to withdraw from the handling of thousands of files. While the Court was sympathetic to the plaintiffs who were left without representation following MMA’s suspension and the need for additional time to organize, sort, and process the multitude of cases, it does not excuse Plaintiff’s delay in service or failure to properly request an extension.
LIGA was substituted as Defendant well after MMA was removed from this case and after Plaintiff had secured new counsel. It was not until May 22, 2024 that LIGA was substituted as Defendant for Weston Property & Casualty Insurance Company after their insolvency in August 2022. For the next four months, the record shows that no action was taken to advance this matter. No request for an extension of time to effect service was made; rather, LIGA was served on October 3, 2024 – 134 days after it was substituted as Defendant.
The Court concluded that Plaintiff failed to establish the requisite good cause to excuse his failure to effect service in a timely manner. Plaintiff’s counsel entered their appearance in this matter almost a full year before effecting service. Accordingly, the Court recommends that LIGA’s Motion to Dismiss be granted.
ZALMA OPINION
LIGA is a governmental agency easy to serve with a complaint. For reasons known only to counsel it took almost twice the time required by Federal Rules, 134 days to serve the defendant. New counsel tried to blame old counsel, MMA, for the delay, even though they had successfully moved to change the name of the defendant to LIGA from Weston and then did nothing to effect the service for 134 days when it could have been done immediately. That violation of the rules required dismissal and for once the fault did not belong to MMA who is now in bankruptcy. The plaintiff Jimmie Legros is not without a remedy since the court has already found the dismissal was due to the failure to act of current counsel.
(c) 2025 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos.
Subscribe to my substack at https://barryzalma.substack.com/subscribe
Go to X @bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/account/content?type=all; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; 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 ...
If Grounds For Dismissal Are Apparent From The Face Of The Complaint, A Court May Also Dismiss The Case on The Court’s Own Motion
Posted on October 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Pro Se Plaintiff Failed to Make a Short and Plain Statement
Post 4856
In Tak Lun Ng v. United Financial Casualty Company, No. 26-cv-03136-LJC, United States District Court, N.D. California (September 28, 2026) Tak Lun Ng, proceeding pro se, sued United Financial Casualty Company over a March 2, 2021 automobile accident and the insurer’s March 24, 2021 refusal to pay him.
He appeared to assert breach of contract, fraud, negligence, premises liability, product liability, and related theories. United removed the action from state court and moved to dismiss.
Ng missed that deadline but later filed several documents, including a motion for leave to amend, all of which the court reviewed.
LAW
Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a complaint must provide a short and plain statement containing enough factual matter to state a facially plausible...
If Grounds For Dismissal Are Apparent From The Face Of The Complaint, A Court May Also Dismiss The Case on The Court’s Own Motion
Posted on October 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Pro Se Plaintiff Failed to Make a Short and Plain Statement
Post 4856
In Tak Lun Ng v. United Financial Casualty Company, No. 26-cv-03136-LJC, United States District Court, N.D. California (September 28, 2026) Tak Lun Ng, proceeding pro se, sued United Financial Casualty Company over a March 2, 2021 automobile accident and the insurer’s March 24, 2021 refusal to pay him.
He appeared to assert breach of contract, fraud, negligence, premises liability, product liability, and related theories. United removed the action from state court and moved to dismiss.
Ng missed that deadline but later filed several documents, including a motion for leave to amend, all of which the court reviewed.
LAW
Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a complaint must provide a short and plain statement containing enough factual matter to state a facially plausible...
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...
