The insurance company suing a Poca-based funeral home, alleged to have cashed in on $1 million worth of false death benefits, has accused defendants of stonewalling the case and asked a federal judge to enter a default judgment in its favor.
The lawsuit Homesteaders Life Company filed against Gatens-Harding Funeral Home last August is at a standstill.
Attorney Jeff Woods, who represents funeral home owners Chad and Billie Harding, hasn't met deadlines for responses in the case and ignored court orders, according to a motion filed by attorneys for the insurance company.
Homesteaders' attorneys say their motion "is the direct result of Defendants' willful ignorance of court-ordered deadlines."
Woods hasn't responded to anything in the case since he filed a response to the lawsuit in September 2015.
"Having no discovery whatsoever from Defendants, Plaintiff cannot move this case forward. Written discovery is at a standstill, and depositions cannot commence," the motion by Homesteaders states. Attorneys Keith D. Fisher and Alexander Macia represent Homesteaders.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Eifert has already ordered Gatens-Harding to pay $1,341 in attorney's fees to the plaintiff for never responding to a motion last month.
The latest request by the insurance company states that, while defendants deserve to be further sanctioned, "this alone would be insufficient under the instant circumstances. Defendants knew full well when ordered to provide discovery responses and initial disclosures that Plaintiff would be awarded some amount of attorney fees, yet Defendants still failed to comply. By their own misconduct, Defendants have necessitated that default judgment be entered against them," the motion states.
The insurance company has tried to get information about employees who worked for the funeral home during the eight-year period involving the allegations and also financial and accounting information and documents, according to its motion.
Earlier this month, Homesteaders' attorneys filed subpoenas with Branch Banking and Trust and Rock Branch Community Bank, according to court documents.
In their complaint, the insurance company determined that only 14 out of 111 people who signed a pre-need contract with the funeral home between 2005 to 2013 were actually deceased.
The people who were deceased, the insurance company said, had passed after the funeral home had previously cashed in on their pre-need contract.
Pre-need funeral arrangements are sold by funeral homes as part of group life insurance plans, which are designed to fund the funeral services for those enrolled. In the event of the consumer's death, the insurance company distributes money to the funeral home to cover the costs of services and arrangements.
Earlier this year, the magistrate judge ruled that the people were in fact alive at the time their death benefits were cashed in. The ruling came after Woods failed to respond to discovery requests made by the insurance company in an attempt to limit the disputes in the case.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.