State Farm v. 20438
In State Farm v 20438 filed in 2012, State Farm claimed that the clinic was really owned by a husband and wife instead of Dr. Hibbert, who was listed on sunbiz.org as the President. The bank records showed that the husband and wife collected about $1,000,000 while Dr. Hibbert only collected $108,000 during the same time period. Other factors considered by State Farm: (a) the husband was present on a daily basis at the clinic whereas the doctor was only there one or two days per week; (b) the husband signed almost all of the checks whereas the doctor rarely signs checks; (c) the doctor testified at a deposition that he let the husband and wife handle payroll; (d) the doctor also testified that he didn’t know how much anyone on his staff was paid or their names; (e) the doctor testified that he didn’t know the phone number to the clinic.
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!
DISCLAIMER
This is based on a real court case that was previously filed against a medical provider/doctor. The case number has been partially redacted and names have been changed to protect the Defendants’ names. This example is posted to help educate others on the laws and potential pitfalls. This posting is not intended to embarrass or defame anyone. I have limited the information and simplified some of the facts in the lawsuit to reflect key points and make a complicated case easier to understand. This “example” is directly from a complaint filed by an insurance company, therefore, I am using the facts THEY presented. There are always two sides to a story so please understand this is just one side of the story. This information was found through records available to the public