United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Southern Division
ORDER GRANTING IN PART MOTION TO STRIKE [18]
LAURIE
J. MICHELSON UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
Meat
Town, a store that stores and sells large quantities of meat,
was robbed and vandalized in November 2015 and then a fire
victim in December 2015. Following the two incidents, Meat
Town submitted two claims to its insurer, Sentinel Insurance
Company. Sentinel did not pay on the claims. So Meat Town
sued.
Following
discovery, Sentinel moved for summary judgment.
Sentinel's motion is largely based on its claim that Meat
Town made material misrepresentations in connection with its
claims. And the alleged material misrepresentations are
supported by affidavits from five people: Allen Cohn, Scott
Najor, Jeff Davis, Patrick Tabaczynski, and Alan Must.
Meat
Town asks this Court to strike these five affidavits. (ECF
No. 18.)
To
understand why, a bit of background is necessary. Apparently
because it was difficult to schedule, the parties agreed to
depose Sentinel's Rule 30(b)(6) witness, Kenneth Soyk,
after the discovery cutoff, on October 2, 2018. At Soyk's
deposition it became clear that Sentinel had sworn statements
from certain of Meat Town's vendors that supported
Sentinel's decision to deny Meat Town's insurance
claims. In particular, this exchange occurred during
Soyk's deposition:
[Meat Town's Counsel:] And what information did Sentinel
discover between the time the Complaint was filed in this
case and this [denial] letter was issued that led to the
issuance of this letter?
[Soyk:] That several of the invoices submitted by the
vendors-submitted by Mr. Stabley from some of the vendors
were-were not accurate.
Q. Okay. Which invoices were those?
A. Invoices from Klaps [sic], Quality Meat, and
Dairy Fresh. . . . When we contacted those vendors, they
indicated that those invoices weren't from them and they
hadn't done any deliveries in quite a while.
Q. Okay. Each of them said that?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. . . . Have any sworn statements from [Kaps, Quality Meats,
and Dairy Fresh] been provided to you or to Sentinel?
A. I'm not aware at this time. . . .
MR. HOLTZ [Meat Town's counsel]: I'd request that
...