Insurance company gets SLAPPED hard

Acompany that made shocking allegations of racketeering and civil conspiracy against personal injury attorney Dennis Prince and two other local attorneys saw its case crumble when a federal judge tossed it out of court.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan dismissed the lawsuit filed by Century Surety Company, finding it a SLAPP lawsuit.

SLAPP, which stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation, is a civil lawsuit brought against a critic or activist as an intimidation measure.

When I wrote about this buzz-worthy case in the legal community last November, Century had sued Prince, George Ranalli and Sylvia Esparza in federal court claiming they conspired to defraud the insurance company.

These are strong allegations that could damage any attorney’s reputation.

This result is positive for Prince and an embarrassing negative for Century because Mahan’s July 13 ruling cleared all three attorneys.

“This sends a message to insurers when you are disgruntled because of losses they themselves caused, you cannot retaliate against the opposing party’s lawyer,” Prince wrote.

Century’s local attorney, Marty Kravitz, said no decision has been made on whether to appeal.

The litigation involves state and federal courts.

In 2009, bicyclist Ryan Pretner was hit by a truck driven by Michael Vasquez, owner of Blue Streak Auto Detailing. Medical costs for Pretner’s brain damage surpassed $2 million.

Vasquez had two insurance policies. One with Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. had a $100,000 cap to cover the truck as his personal vehicle. The second with Century was a commercial liability garage coverage policy for his business carrying a $1 million cap.

Vasquez told police he was running errands and not on the job, so Progressive paid Pretner $100,000, a pittance really. Ranalli negotiated that settlement in state court.

Meanwhile, Pretner’s girlfriend, immigration attorney Esparza, also filed a complaint against Century.

Three weeks before the statute of limitations was to expire, Prince was hired by Pretner’s family, replacing Esparza.

Century took the position that Progressive was handling the case and was a no-show in state court. District Judge Douglas Herndon granted a default judgment ordering the insurance company to pay more than $18 million to Pretner.

Prince had written Century’s attorney and asked her to contact him because he had legal research to support his position that Vasquez was working at the time and thus covered under the garage coverage policy.

She emailed back that “Century has no coverage for this matter.”

“Century was the one that elected to neither defend Vasquez nor Blue Streak in the lawsuit,” Mahan wrote in his opinion. “Prince did not and could not ‘orchestrate’ Century’s failure to defend.”

The judge decided Century didn’t show any racketeering activity or conspiracy among the three lawyers.

On Wednesday, Century argued the same fraud allegations before Judge Herndon, only to see them rejected again. So the $18 million default judgment stands, a massive victory for Prince.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“If you shoot at a king, you must kill him.”

In this case, Century took a shot at Prince … and missed.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column runs Thursdays in the Nevada section. Contact her at jane@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-0275. Follow @ janeannmorrison on Twitter.

Thunderstorms boomed and bounced around the Las Vegas Valley on Wednesday, causing localized flooding, numerous traffic accidents and transportation delays but relatively little damage.

The blustery day began with scattered storms that produced heavy rains, most of them concentrated in the southeast valley.

The Regional Flood Control District said heavy rainfall was reported in Laughlin, Searchlight and eastern Henderson. Most of the district’s rain gauges in Henderson recorded well more than an inch of rain in an hour, spokeswoman Erin Neff said.

As of 10 a.m., about 14½ feet of water had collected in the Pittman East Detention Basin, a basin to protect against flooding that can hold up to 49 feet of water, in eastern Henderson, Neff said.

The weather service reported 1.65 inches of rainfall in Henderson and 0.5 to 0.9 inches in the rest of the southwest valley. The rest of the valley saw lighter rains, the weather service said. A rain gauge at Mccarran International Airport measured just 0.09 inches.

WEATHER

Because rain did not fall within official Las Vegas city limits, the Las Vegas Fire Department did not make any flash flood rescues, spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Clark County Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Buchanan said his organization received weather-related calls but that none were serious or involved rescues.

A thunderstorm and wet roadway were “more than likely” to blame for a jackknifed tractor-trailer that blocked the eastbound 215 Beltway ramp leading to northbound Interstate 15 during the morning commute, Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Jason Buratczuk said. The ramp reopened about 10 a.m., he said.

Lightning struck a palm tree in the central valley just before 8 a.m. at a shopping center on 6455 Dean Martin Drive, the Clark County Fire Department said in a statement. Embers had fallen from the tree onto a building’s roof, causing a fire.

Damages have not been estimated, the Fire Department said. No injuries were reported.

Twenty flights at Mccarran were diverted to other airports due to the weather conditions between 8 and 9 a.m., spokeswoman Christine Crews said. Later in the morning, arriving flights were delayed an average of one hour and 17 minutes, she said.

By evening, rainfall decreased and the airport resumed most of its regular operations, spokesman Jon Apisa said.

The heavy rainfall and flooding also caused delays on the public transportation system in the southern valley, according to the Regional Transportation Commission.

The Metropolitan Police Department said that crashes increased because of weather conditions, though exact metrics could not be provided.

Tree limb intrudes

Ginger Mcgraw, 63, of Henderson said the winds accompanying the storms downed a tree limb that punched a hole in her roof around 8 a.m.

“I looked out the window and the oleanders were swinging and swaying and stuff and I heard a thud,” she said. “I looked out this way and I looked out that way in the backyard. … And I walked into the bedroom and water was pouring.”

The National Weather Service kept a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, some of which could produce heavy rains, in the forecast for Thursday. But it said the day would be mostly sunny.

Contact Isabelle Delgado at idelgado@reviewjournal.com or 702-3830381. Follow @izzydd_ on Twitter. Review-journal staff writers Art Marroquin, Max Michor, Rachel Hershkovitz and staff photographer Patrick Connolly contributed to this report.