Insurer refusing to represent Farah and Farah in malpractice case [The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville]

May 11--According to their ubiquitous Jacksonville TV spots, the law offices of Farah & Farah relish taking on big insurance companies in court.

Now Farah and Farah's own insurer is turning the tables.

Illinois-based Axis Insurance Co. asked a judge to remove its obligation to represent or indemnify Farah & Farah in a legal malpractice lawsuit filed in August by a family the firm once represented against Jacksonville Naval Hospital.

Axis says Farah & Farah failed to disclose the potential lawsuit when it applied for malpractice insurance last year.

But Eddie Farah said his firm was no longer involved in the case by the time it went to trial in 2005. He said the lawyer who represented the family left Farah & Farah and took the case with him.

"I wasn't that involved in that case," Farah said.

The case at issue involves Tracey T. Turner, a boy left blind in 2001 after a visit to the hospital's emergency room at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. In 2005, U.S. District Judge Henry Adams awarded the family nearly $6 million, the second-highest award ever against the hospital. About $1.6 million of that was for Tracey's parents.

But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta struck down the parents' portion of the award in 2008 because it said the lawsuit was filed too soon -- less than six months after they submitted claim forms to the Navy.

In their malpractice suit, parents Tracey B. and Tracy R. Turner blame mistakes by their former lawyers for the lost portion of the award, said the family's attorney, Rodney McGalliard of Virginia.

Jacksonville attorney Fred Catfish Abbott, who took the case to trial, denied any negligence on his part and points out several times in a motion to dismiss the family's claim that the victim, now 11, won $4.36 million.

"The problem occurred before I even got in the case," Abbott said Monday. He said the faulty forms were filed by a lawyer at Farah & Farah before Abbott started working there.

But Farah & Farah's lawyers argued in their own motion to dismiss that Abbott is to blame because he signed the lawsuit in 2003 and handled the litigation.

"Plaintiffs have sued the wrong parties," the motion says.

The Axis Insurance complaint names both Farah & Farah and Abbott. It says Farah & Farah falsely represented on its insurance application in June that it was unaware of any incidents or disputes that could give rise to a claim.

Axis attorney Gregor Gaebe of Coral Gables wouldn't comment.

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