State Farm v. 00223

In State Farm v 00223 filed in 2018, State Farm claimed that Dr. Hawkeye Pierce was not the real owner even though he was listed on sunbiz.org as the President and submitted an Application for Exemption with AHCA claiming he “wholly owned” the clinic.  The clinic was actually owned by Mr. O’Reilly. 

In this case, Dr. Pierce submitted an affidavit to State Farm admitting that he didn’t own the clinic.  According to the affidavit, Mr. O’Reilly set up the clinic, was responsible for operating the Clinic, controlled the business and money for the Clinic, and oversaw all activity and operations at the Clinic.  Also, Dr. Pierce admitted he never owned the Clinic, didn’t sign the lease, never had keys for the Clinic, never knew security code to the alarm system at the Clinic, was a 1099 contractor for the Clinic, made no business decisions for the Clinic, never prepared tax records or financial records for the Clinic, and never signed any checks for the Clinic.  These are all things a real owner would do.

When Dr. Pierce didn’t want to participate anymore, Mr. O’Reilly created a contract for the sale of the business from Dr. Pierce to a different doctor for $1,000.  This was a one-page contract and there was no proof that money was really exchanged.  State Farm pointed out that even if the $1,000 was exchanged, it wasn’t equal to the what the business was worth.  To give you an example, if a business is generating $100,000 a month in gross revenue, why would anyone sell that business for $1,000 to another person. 

All of this was evidence that the clinic was not “wholly owned” by the doctor which means State Farm was owed all of the money it previously paid to this clinic!