Johnson
TEXARKANA, Ark. -- In an offshoot to the Colossus class action, American National Property and Casualty Co., the only remaining defendant, is asking the Miller County judge to rule on a joint motion filed almost two years ago.
Both parties to the lawsuit want the case to continue in an "orderly fashion" and are asking the court to schedule hearing dates and to rule on pending issues.
The original class action was filed on Feb. 7, 2005, against insurance companies that use Computer Science Corp.'s software Colossus, Insurance Services Office's software COA and Claim IQ's software Injury IQ.
The proposed class action alleges that insurance companies use these programs to systematically undervalue bodily-injury claim settlements in an effort to profit. Defending the use, the insurance companies argue these programs can provide a consistent estimate for bodily-injury claims through the data inputs of insurance adjusters.
In an effort to keep litigation moving, in mid-2008 Miller County Judge Kirk Johnson granted a request by the plaintiffs to sever USAA, ANPAC, GEICO, Claim IQ Inc. and Computer Science Corp. from the pending Colossus class action. The order granting the motion for severance also allowed Miller County resident James Basham to become a party to the litigation. The severed defendants maintain the severance was only because they refused to settle
A couple years later, ANPAC is the only defendant left attempting to defend itself, after the other insurance companies settled out of the litigations. The case has been relatively silent for the past year but now both ANPAC and the plaintiffs are waiting for the judge to rule and provide a scheduling order. In the joint letter to Judge Johnson, the parties ask for the scheduling of a status conference to present the two-year-old motion.
The plaintiff is represented by attorneys John Goodson and Matt Keil of the Texarkana law firm Keil and Goodson.
Other class counsel includes Oklahoma City attorneys, Jason Roselius, Chad Ihrig, and Derrick Morton of the law firm of Nelson, Roselius, Terry, O'Hara, and Morton; attorneys Reggie Whitten, Simone Gosnell Fulmer and Michael Burrage of the law firm of Whitten, Burrage, Priest, Fulmer, Anderson, and Eisel and Texarkana attorney Michael Angelovich of the Nix, Patterson, and Roach law firm.
CV-2005-59-3-A