United States Fifth Circuit

Dismissal of a False Claims Act suit arising out of Katrina-related insurance fraud is affirmed in part where the FCA's first-to-file jurisdictional bar applied to plaintiff's case against certain defendants despite the fact that plaintiff focused on different details, geographic locations, and other insurer defendants; but reversed in part where the previous case's allegations and generic naming of two other insurers, by itself, did not trigger the first-to- file bar as to plaintiff's specific allegations against other insurers that the first case did not name.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/18/2009
• Published 02/18/2009

Judges

• HAYNES, Circuit Judge:, Before BENAVIDES, SOUTHWICK and HAYNES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Allan L. Kanner (argued), Cynthia Green St. Amant, Kanner & Whiteley, LLC, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellant., Brad D. Brian, Gregory John Weingart, Munger, Tolles & Olson, Los Angeles, CA, Judy Y. Barrasso, Stephen H. Kupperman, Barrassso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver, New Orleans, LA, Genevieve Cox, Munger, Tolles & Olson, San Francisco, CA, Richard L. Fenton, Steven M. Levy, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, Chicago, IL, for Allstate Ins. Co., Phillip A. Wittmann (argued), Daria Burgess Diaz, Stone, Pigman, Walther & Wittmann, New Orleans, LA, for State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., Russell Yager, Vinson & Elkins, Dallas, TX, for Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., Gerald Joseph Nielsen, William Truman Treas, Nielsen Law Firm, Metairie, LA, for Fidelity Nat. Ins. Co. and Fidelity Nat. Prop. & Cas. Ins Co., Jay M. Lonero, Christopher Raymond Pennison, Larzelere, Picou, Wells, Simpson, Lonero, Metairie, LA, for Am. Nat. Prop. & Cas. Co., Robert A. Kutcher, Chopin, Wagar, Richard & Kutcher, Metairie, LA, James H. Crosby, Crosby Saad, LLC, Mobile, AL, Timothy J. Hatch, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, Washington, DC, for Pilot Catastrophe Services, Inc., Richard B. Eason, II, Raymond Peter Ward, Adams & Reese, New Orleans, LA, for Crawford & Co., William Glenn Burns, Dominic J. Ovella, Darren A. Patin, Richard T. Simmons, Jr., Hailey, McNamara, Hall, Larmann & Papale, Metairie, LA, for NCA Group, Inc., Andre Jude Lagarde, McCranie, Sistrunk, Anzelmo, Hardy, Maxwell & McDaniel, Metairie, LA, for Simsol Ins. Services, Inc., Gordon Paul Serou, Jr., Law Offices of Gordon P. Serou, Jr., New Orleans, LA, for Am. Reliable Ins. Co., Peter S. Koeppel, Michael Louis Martin, Best Koeppel, New Orleans, LA, for Colonial Claims Corp., Harry A. Rosenberg, Phelps Dunbar, New Orleans, LA, Bryce L. Friedman (argued), Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, New York City, Deborah L. Stein, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, for Standard Fire Ins. Co.