Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company

CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedApril 24, 2025
Docket4:23-cv-00023
StatusUnknown

This text of Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company (Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company, (D. Alaska 2025).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ALASKA

LISA ROCKWELL, Plaintiff, v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE CO., et al., Case No. 4:23-cv-00023-SLG Defendants.

ORDER ON PENDING MOTIONS Before the Court are three pending motions: • At Docket 28 is Defendants Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Homeowners Insurance, Allstate Property & Casualty, and Allstate Fire and Casualty (collectively, “Allstate”)’s1 Motion to Compel

Plaintiff’s Rule 26 Initial Disclosures and for Sanctions. Plaintiff Lisa Rockwell responded in opposition at Docket 32, and Allstate filed a reply at Docket 33. • At Docket 29 is Plaintiff Lisa Rockwell’s Motion in Limine and Motion for Summary Judgment. Allstate responded in opposition at Docket 30. Ms.

Rockwell did not file a reply.

1 Defendants maintain that the only proper defendant is Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company. See, e.g., Docket 30 at 2 n.1. • At Docket 31 is Allstate’s Alternative Motion Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(d) to Defer Consideration of or Deny Plaintiff’s Motion in

Limine and Motion for Summary Judgment in Favor of Plaintiff, which it filed simultaneously with its opposition to Ms. Rockwell’s motion in limine and motion for summary Judgment. Ms. Rockwell did not file a response. Oral argument was not requested with respect to any of the pending motions and was not necessary to the Court’s determinations. BACKGROUND

This dispute arises out of coverage Ms. Rockwell received under an Allstate homeowner’s insurance policy after a fire damaged her residence in North Pole, Alaska, in August 2021.2 Ms. Rockwell alleges that she received only “partial payment for damages to her residence and personal property from Allstate” and that “Allstate used unethical methods of determining actual cash value of

claimant’s personal property by applying ‘Actual Costs’ that are: (a) deceptive and unexplained; (b) contrary to appraisal standards and methodologies.”3 Ms. Rockwell also alleges that Allstate demanded that she “use methods to restore her home using a chemical that presents a significant threat to the Plaintiff and the families health with a product that is toxic even at at (sic) extremely low levels,”

2 See Docket 1-1 at ¶ 17; Docket 30 at 3. 3 Docket 1-1 at ¶ 3.

Case No. 4:23-cv-00023, Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al. Order on Pending Motions rather than paying to replace the items and rebuild the home with new components.4 According to Ms. Rockwell, Allstate should have paid an additional sum of $711,895.94 for replacement of the structure and personal contents.5 Ms.

Rockwell asserts claims for breach of contract, negligence, and bad faith.6 Ms. Rockwell, who is self-represented, originally filed this action in Alaska Superior Court on July 4, 2023.7 Defendants removed the action to this Court on September 21, 2023.8 The Court entered the current scheduling order on October 23, 2024.9 Pursuant to that order, the parties’ initial disclosures were due on or

before November 5, 2024, and the parties’ preliminary witness lists were due on or before November 26, 2024.10

4 Docket 1-1 at ¶¶ 4, 19–26. 5 Docket 1-1 at ¶¶ 50, 55. 6 See Docket 1-1 at ¶ 2. Ms. Rockwell’s Complaint also references the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act, Alaska Stat. §§ 45.50.471, et. seq., Docket 1-1 at ¶ 13, and appears to quote Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.204, which is inapplicable here, compare Docket 1-1 at ¶ 53 (purporting to reference “Alaska 501.204”), with Fla. Stat. § 501.204(1) (containing language quoted in Complaint). 7 See Docket 1-1 at 16. 8 Docket 1. 9 See Docket 26. 10 Docket 26 at 2.

Case No. 4:23-cv-00023, Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al. Order on Pending Motions In the pending motions, Allstate moves to compel Ms. Rockwell to provide her initial disclosures and for sanctions,11 and Ms. Rockwell moves “to remove the witnesses presented by the Defendant” and for summary judgment.12 In a motion

filed simultaneously with Allstate’s opposition to Ms. Rockwell’s motion for summary judgment, Allstate alternatively requests an opportunity to conduct additional discovery “if Ms. Rockwell is provided the opportunity to remedy” deficiencies in her motion for summary judgment.13 LEGAL STANDARDS

I. Motion to Compel Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(a)(3)(A), “[i]f a party fails to make a disclosure required by Rule 26(a), any other party may move to compel disclosure and for appropriate sanctions.” If the motion to compel is granted, a court must require the party whose conduct necessitated the motion, the party or

attorney advising that conduct, or both, to pay the movant’s reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, unless “the movant filed the motion before attempting in good faith to obtain the disclosure or discovery without court action,” “the opposing

11 Docket 28-1. 12 Docket 29 at 1. 13 Docket 31 at 3.

Case No. 4:23-cv-00023, Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al. Order on Pending Motions party’s nondisclosure, response, or objection was substantially justified,” or “other circumstances make an award of expenses unjust.”14 Rule 37(c)(1) further provides that a party who fails to make initial

disclosures “is not allowed to use that information or witness to supply evidence on a motion, at a hearing, or at a trial, unless the failure was substantially justified or is harmless.” In addition to this evidence preclusion sanction, a court may “order payment of the reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, caused by the failure” to provide initial disclosures.15 The burden is on the party facing sanctions

to show that its failure to provide initial disclosures was substantially justified or harmless.16 II. Motion in Limine “A motion in limine is a procedural mechanism to limit in advance [of trial] testimony or evidence in a particular area.”17 Pretrial consideration avoids the

futile attempt to “unring the bell” when jurors see or hear inadmissible evidence, even when it is stricken from the record.18 “A motion in limine should not be used

14 Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(5)(A). 15 Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(c)(1)(A). 16 See Yeti by Molly, Ltd. v. Deckers Outdoor Corp., 259 F.3d 1101, 1107 (9th Cir. 2001). 17 United States v. Heller, 551 F.3d 1108, 1111 (9th Cir. 2009). 18 Brodit v. Cambra, 350 F.3d 985, 1004–05 (9th Cir. 2003) (Berzon, J., dissenting) (internal citation omitted).

Case No. 4:23-cv-00023, Rockwell v. Allstate Insurance Company, et al. Order on Pending Motions to resolve factual disputes or weigh evidence”19 and “is not the proper vehicle for seeking a dispositive ruling on a claim.”20 III. Motion for Summary Judgment

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure

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