Last week, we looked at Magistrate Judge York’s October 2021 opinion in Smith v. State Farm, in which State Farm was ordered to proceed with an appraisal of the loss as properly invoked by Ms. Smith. As a refresher, Ms. Smith’s home was damaged by a March 3, 2020 storm, and State Farm agreed she suffered a covered loss and issued a payment to her. Ms. Smith disagreed with State Farm’s estimate of the loss and invoked the policy’s appraisal clause. State Farm refused to proceed with an appraisal of the loss, and Ms. Smith filed suit. In responding to Ms. Smith’s motion to compel appraisal ..read more

Over the past few posts, I’ve explored a couple of recent opinions from federal courts in the Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee that explored the appropriate use of appraisal in resolving disputes about the “scope” of a loss.  For this next installment, we move to West Tennessee for yet another recent case on the same topic. In Smith v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., my client’s home was damaged by the March 3, 2020 tornado, made a claim with State Farm, disagreed with State Farm’s assessment of the amount of loss, and ultimately invoked the insurance policy’s appraisal clause ..read more

Earlier this week I posted about the recent Ingram v. State Farm case in which a federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee obliterated State Farm’s defense that appraisal was inappropriate for disputes about “scope.” The Ingram case was just one of several recent opinions from around the State of Tennessee concerning insurance appraisals in Tennessee. For our next case, we travel to Nashville to the federal court in the Middle District of Tennessee to explore another case in which my firm represents the policyholders against State Farm – State Farm Fire & Has. Co. v. Har ..read more

Over the past few posts, I’ve explored a couple of recent opinions from federal courts in the Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee that explored the appropriate use of appraisal in resolving disputes about the “scope” of a loss.  For this next installment, we move to West Tennessee for yet another recent case on the same topic. In Smith v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., my client’s home was damaged by the March 3, 2020 tornado, made a claim with State Farm, disagreed with State Farm’s assessment of the amount of loss, and ultimately invoked the insurance policy’s appraisal clause ..read more

In 2021, courts across Tennessee issued a handful of decisions that continue to define the nuances of the Tennessee Court of Appeals’ opinion in Merrimack v. Batts that is now twenty years old. Suffice it to say the landscape is quickly changing and I’m excited to share the new developments. The next few posts will explore these decisions and their importance on insurance appraisals in Tennessee. First up is Ingram v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., a case pending in the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In Ingram, my firm represents Mr. Ingram, whose home was d ..read more

The Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was simultaneously created to implement, administer, and enforce its requirements. OSHA’s mission is to “assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.” Every single contractor in the United States is required to provide a safe work environment for its construction workers. Compliance with OSHA standards is mandated by federal law ..read more

The storm has passed and a new wave of obstacles and hurdles are sure to follow in its wake.  Out-of-state adjusters have already flooded the area, and not all of them know and understand policyholders’ rights in the State of Tennessee.  Here’s a few tips on a few areas that we at McWherter Scott & Bobbitt often run into when handling storm-damage claims: Matching – In the fall of 2017, the Tennessee Commissioner of Insurance adopted a rule requiring that in claims involving replacement cost policies, the insurance company must replace items “so as to conform to a reasonably uniform appea ..read more

This past Sunday morning I boarded  a plane for Naples, FL for a mediation in one of the labor depreciation class actions my firm is handling.  When I left, I had no idea that when I returned a few days later Nashville would be a very different place.  The storms that pummeled Tennessee on March 2 and 3 will impact our state for decades.  Lives were lost, buildings destroyed, businesses ruined, and churches toppled.  The recovery and reconstruction process will take years.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to those that were impacted, and our firm (McWherter Scott & Bobbitt, PLC) will prou ..read more

For the past few years, I’ve been involved in several labor depreciation cases around the Southeast, including one right here in Tennessee against Auto-Owners.  The threshold legal question in that case, Lammert et al. v. Auto-Owners Mutual Ins. Co., was whether an insurance company can depreciate the cost of labor when determining its actual cash value payment obligations.  The Supreme Court’s answer was a resounding “No”. The Lammert case was filed as a class action in federal court in Nashville, but Judge Crenshaw certified this critical legal question to the TN Supreme Court.  Here is the ..read more