Mike Morse pushes back against State Farm auto insurance claims

June 09--Metro Detroit attorney Mike Morse is pushing back against recent claims by an auto insurance company about potentially improper payments for his private jet and personal residence, and alleged ties to an MRI center.

In federal court documents filed Friday in response to State Farm's allegations, a lawyer for Morse produced checks and wire transfer documents that appear to show how Morse repaid several property purchases as well as a loan that the insurance company pointed to as suspicious.

Morse's lawyer, I. W. Winsten of Honigman, Miller, Schwartz & Cohn, also chastised State Farm for attempting to draw Morse into the insurance company's broader lawsuit concerning alleged no-fault auto insurance patient mills in southeast Michigan.

Morse had no involvement with those operations, the new filing says, and he knew nothing of their alleged fraud.

Morse is not a defendant in State Farm's lawsuit, although the auto insurance company contends that he and his Southfield-based law firm "played a critical role" in facilitating the patient mills.

According to Morse's lawyer, State Farm is targeting Morse with bogus claims because he is successful at fighting insurance companies for his clients, and it wants to shut him down.

"State Farm seeks to use this lawsuit to make public and false accusations against Morse to try to harm his reputation, to gather information to defend his lawsuits

against State Farm and to try to deter new ones," Winsten wrote.

State Farm made its allegations against Morse last month. The new filings are the first time Morse has directly addressed the substance of some of the claims.

A State Farm spokeswoman declined to comment Friday on Morse's response.

"We await the decision of the court," spokeswoman Missy Dundov said.

MRI ownership denied

State Farm accused Morse of having secret ties to a now-closed MRI center in Berkley called Horizon Imaging that ran through his ex-brother-in-law, Mark Radom. The brother-in-law may have acted as a "straw owner" for Morse or they could have been partners, the insurance company claimed.

Horizon treated some of Morse's clients. It also was one of the highest-charging MRI centers in metro Detroit, billing more than $5,000 per image to patients paying with no-fault auto insurance.

In a phone interview Friday, Winsten said that Morse had no ownership interest in the MRI center.

Repaid loans

The new filings offer some explanation for a $1.1-million loan that Morse received in 2014 from the brother-in-law through funds generated by the MRI center. According to the filings, in 2015 Morse "assigned back" the interest in a real estate venture that he acquired with the loan's proceeds, essentially repaying the loan.

The filings also include a receipt for a $669,558 wire transfer in 2012 from Morse to Radom for a house in Huntington Woods. Morse's wife, Harriet Morse, eventually moved into the house after she and Morse divorced.

The wire transfer could contradict State Farm's claim that Radom, who is Harriet Morse's brother, paid for the house and later gave it to her "for free."

"State Farm knew these facts and knowingly concealed them from the court," Morse's lawyer wrote.

In addition, the filings show a $555,925 check from Morse to Radom in May 2015 that was to reimburse Radom for buying the property next door to Morse's own residence in Huntington Woods. Morse used that neighboring property to build an addition to his house.

Other payments

The filings do not address State Farm's claim that medical clinics belonging to an area businessman paid $88,000 in 2015 to the contractor who built the addition to Morse's house. Those clinics had treated some of Morse's clients.

Asked for comment Friday about the alleged contractor payments, Winsten told the Free Press that "State Farm knows that Mike Morse did nothing wrong."

State Farm has also claimed that a second set of payments from the businessman's clinics -- totaling $100,000 -- went to a limited liability company that owns Morse's private airplane.

According to filings from Morse's lawyer, this money was a straightforward payment for renting time on the aircraft.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.

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