Progressive has handed over 68 boxes of claims files to Greg Coccaro, owner of North State Custom in Bedford Hills, New York, heeding a judge’s final warning issued in April to produce the files or else pay damages to Coccaro in his suit against the insurer. Progressive turned over the files – which Coccaro’s lawyer requested in early 2008 – on May 28, the final deadline given by Hon. Gerald E. Loehr.
The claims documents encompass repairs performed on roughly 800 vehicles at five DRP shops near North State in Westchester County, New York. Coccaro filed the suit against Progressive in 2007, alleging that Progressive “intentionally misled its insureds to use repair shops other than North State and, in particular, shops within Progressive’s repair network as part of a plan by Progressive to reduce its indemnity costs.”
The case, still in its discovery phase, has been fraught with delays. In February, Loehr gave the insurer until April to produce the requested documents, then gave an extended deadline when Progressive did not comply. The insurer argued that its documents were stored in too many places and in too many formats to easily produce.
“It is abundantly clear that there has been an intent on the part of Progressive to frustrate orderly discovery in this case,” Loehr said in April.
The court gave Coccaro 45 days to review the files handed over by Progressive.
“Because of the thousands of documents, tape recordings and CDs we have to review, we can’t at this time know if anything is missing,” Coccaro stated in an e-mail. Coccaro said what could be missing are claims diaries, network shop quality control sheets, estimates or a number of other things.
Coccaro added that Progressive has submitted an appeal of the fraud case against him that a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed in August 2008 (click HERE to read more about the suit).
Click HERE to read our previous story about Coccaro’s case against Progressive.
Click HERE for information about donating to Coccaro’s legal fund.
