No Breach of Contract no Bad Faith
Post 4568
Posted on October 23, 2026 by Barry Zalma
A Party Cannot Designate One Witness While Submitting An Undifferentiated Product Of That Witness And An Undesignated Collaborator.
Post 4568
In Dustin Cain; Amanda Cain v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, No. 25-60442, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (October 16, 2026) Dustin and Amanda Cain sought homeowners’ insurance benefits after a tree fell on their Mississippi home on August 27, 2022. State Farm concluded that the tree caused only a roof puncture and that other damage resulted from excluded long-term conditions. It paid $10,042.90 and later an additional $3,130.08.
The Cains relied on an engineering report and contractor estimate asserting substantially greater damage, sued for breach of contract and related relief, and designated Sean Fee as their sole expert. Fee’s report and a later repair estimate were jointly authored with Jim Irmiter, but neither document identified which opinions, work, or reasoning belonged to Fee.
The repair estimate was also served on the discovery deadline, months after the expert-designation deadline and without prior leave.
The district court struck the expert materials, entered summary judgment for State Farm because the Cains lacked admissible proof of causation and damages, and denied post-judgment relief.
LAW
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviews exclusion of expert testimony and denial of Rule 59(e) relief for abuse of discretion, but reviews summary judgment de novo.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(a)(2)(B)(i) requires a retained expert’s report to state completely the opinions that the witness will express and the bases and reasons for them. The expert must offer an independent opinion rather than serve as another person’s mouthpiece. A joint report may be permissible when each contributing expert is designated and the report clearly attributes opinions to each witness.
Under Mississippi law a bad-faith claim cannot survive without an underlying breach of the insurance contract.
DISCUSSION
The Cains argued that Fee and Irmiter had jointly reached a unified opinion and that any uncertainty concerned weight rather than admissibility. The Fifth Circuit rejected that position. The reports merely said both men contributed to, reviewed, and concurred in the contents; they did not reveal what work Fee performed, which conclusions were his, or the bases for his conclusions.
The problem was heightened because Irmiter was not designated as an expert. Without attribution, State Farm and the court could not meaningfully test Fee’s methodology or reliability. Once the expert evidence was excluded, the Cains conceded they could not prove the claimed damages. Their extra-contractual claims also failed because Mississippi bad-faith liability requires a viable underlying contract claim.
ANALYSIS
The decision turns on expert attribution, not a categorical ban on collaborative work. Its practical rule is that a party cannot designate one witness while submitting an undifferentiated product of that witness and an undesignated collaborator. Clear attribution is necessary to satisfy disclosure duties, permit effective deposition and cross-examination, and allow the trial court to perform its reliability-screening role.
The evidentiary ruling was dispositive because causation and repair costs were technical issues outside ordinary lay knowledge. The case also illustrates that the compounding risk of late expert supplementation. The appellate holding rests principally on the reports’ failure to identify Fee’s own opinions, waiting until the discovery deadline left little opportunity to cure the defect.
CONCLUSIONS
The Fifth Circuit affirmed. Before expert testimony may be subjected to the adversarial process, it must first be admissible. Here, the admissibility of the proposed expert reports was the issue, not their weight. Because the Johnsons' breach of contract claim fails, their bad faith claim necessarily fails. The district court correctly granted summary judgment dismissing all of the Cains' claims after it struck their proposed expert testimony and report.
ZALMA OPINION
In Federal Practice a designated expert must identify which opinions, work, or reasoning belonged to the designated expert. When the parties submitted an expert report in the name of a single expert when a second expert admittedly participated in the creation of the report but did not identify who did what to the report. Since it was filed late, could not be corrected, and did not identify who did what to the report. That failure caused the report and estimate to be rejected by the court and the plaintiff unable to prove their damages.
(c) 2026 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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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 ...
Claims of Res Judicata and Procedural Default Defeats Habeas
Post 5543
Posted on November 13, 2026 by Barry Zalma
A Health Insurance Fraud Conviction Rested On Knowingly Submitting Materially False Or Misleading Claim Information With Specific Intent To Defraud.
A Health Insurance Fraud Conviction Rested On Knowingly Submitting Materially False Or Misleading Claim Information With Specific Intent To Defraud.
In Tariq Mustafa Abdulaziz v. Commissioner Of Correction, No. CV 26-5002432-S, Superior Court of Connecticut, Judicial District of Tolland, Habeas Docket (October 29, 2026) Tariq Mustafa Abdulaziz submitted 114 claims for in-home, face-to-face services purportedly provided to thirty program participants during four one-week periods. The department paid Neurostrategies, Inc., $13,650.
FACTS
The defendant waived his right to a jury trial and elected a trial to the court, D'Addabbo, J. Trial occurred over the course of eight days in August, 2022. The state presented testimony from ten witnesses and introduced thirty-three exhibits into ...
Theft of Confidential Information
Post 4581
Posted on November 12, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In People Center, Inc. v. Deel, Inc., et al., No. 25-cv-02576-CRB (LJC), United States District Court, N.D. California (November 7, 2026) People Center, doing business as Rippling, and Deel compete in payroll and human-resource management software. Rippling alleges that Deel and its executives recruited Rippling employee Keith O’Brien, based in Ireland, to disclose confidential information and trade secrets.
THE IRISH SUIT
Rippling sued O’Brien in Ireland and Deel in the United States. O’Brien subsequently retained separate counsel, supplied an affidavit describing the alleged espionage, and entered into a Cooperation Agreement with Rippling. In exchange for his cooperation, Rippling agreed to provide financial assistance, indemnification, and conditional dismissal of the Irish proceedings. The agreement also permitted renewed proceedings or a monetary judgment upon a material breach.
The Irish proceedings against O’Brien were dismissed...
A Proposed Amended Complaint That Includes New Factual Allegations to Remedy Pleading Deficiencies
Posted on November 11, 2026 by Barry Zalma
After Dismissal Fraud Victim May Amend Complaint After Dismissal
Post 4580
If A Proposed Amendment Is Not Clearly Futile, Then Denial Of Leave To Amend Is Improper
In John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company v. Caring Connections LLC, Arthur Feldheim, and Blime a/k/a Vera Feldheim, Civ. No. 25-7574 (MAS)(JBD), United States District Court, D. New Jersey (November 6, 2026) John Hancock sued Caring Connections LLC, Arthur Feldheim, and Blime a/k/a Vera Feldheim on June 5, 2025, asserting thirteen claims, including fraud, breach of contract, and aiding and abetting fraud.
On March 26, 2026, this Court entered an order granting Caring Connections’ motion to dismiss and granting in part and denying in part the Feldheims’ motion to dismiss. The dismissed claims were dismissed without prejudice, and John Hancock timely sought leave to amend.
They also argued that the New ...
