U.S. District Judge, Carlos Mendoza, denied Auto Glass America (AGA) and its owner Charles Isaly’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction in its assignment of benefits (AOB) fraud lawsuit yesterday. The ongoing legal battle is between Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Indemnity Company and Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company (collectively Allstate) and defendants AGA and Isaly.
According to the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure, a party may “move to dismiss the claims against it for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.” Attacks on subject matter jurisdiction come in two forms: facial and factual attacks.
AGA and Isaly also say they reached two settlements with Allstate, and submitted two mediation agreements that supported disposing of several hundred state court small claims actions. Defendants argued that Allstate improperly included the settled cases to “satisfy the amount the insurance company listed in its complaint.” The defendants also argued that settled claims should be deducted from the amount Allstate listed.
“The mediation agreements also include other named plaintiffs involved in the settlements and do not specify how much was paid by plaintiffs. Fortunately, plaintiffs have submitted their supplemental rule disclosures, which contain detailed calculations of their alleged damages and establish that the amount in controversy far exceeds the minimum requirement. The plaintiffs have met their burden to withstand the defendants’ factual attack,” a portion of the order reads.
Look to a future edition of glassBYTEs for continued coverage of this suit.
