McALLEN – A federal judge in McAllen recently closed more than a dozen hails claims in a single day, all of which were handled by the Mostyn Law Firm in Houston.
On July 28 Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa granted State Farm Lloyds summary judgment in 17 different hail lawsuits.
Court records show that all the suits were originally brought in Hidalgo County in connection with the hailstorm that struck the Rio Grande Valley area in March of 2012 and then removed to federal court.
Furthermore, the suits were filed nearly two years after the incident took place, each seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the insurer for breach of contract and other alleged infractions.
In its motions for summary judgment, State Farm argued that it paid appraisal awards handed down by appraisers and mutually selected umpires, resolving all claims in all the lawsuits.
For the past year, the Record has extensively reported on State Farm’s successful efforts in battling hail claims, which are filed in mass against insurers after every severe weather event in Texas.
On May 6 Mostyn, who created the mass tort model used in suing insurers after disasters, was called to appear before U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez to show cause on why he should not be sanctioned for repeatedly bringing factually unsupported storm lawsuits.
Although Judge Alvarez has yet to hand down a judgment in that matter, court records show the case that prompted the hearing was a hail lawsuit brought by Mostyn on behalf of plaintiffs Mark and Kelly Dizdar against State Farm.
Mark and Kelly Dizdar are also responsible for three of the 17 hail lawsuits that were tossed by Judge Hinojosa.
The hail cases closed on July 28 are as follows:
- Mark and Kelly Dizdar v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00515);
- Roberto Guerra and Leslie Yoder-Guerra v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00312);
- Roel and Olivia Guerra v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00381);
- Sonia Casas and Mario Montemayor v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00382);
- Corpus v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00383);
- Garcia v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00398);
- Mata et al v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00423);
- Kurth (Sherwood Partnership) v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00431);
- Mark and Kelly Dizdar (Dizdar Development) v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00449);
- Mark and Kelly Dizdar (Dizdar Development) v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00508);
- Hernandez v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00511);
- Ybarra et al v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00525);
- Echartea et al v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00528);
- Barreiro et al v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00535);
- Oscar Hinojosa et al v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00633);
- Gonzalez v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00767); and
- Juana Hinojosa v. State Farm Lloyds (7:14-cv-00641.