Ruth
Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth has reset a case management conference in a 2004 class action filed against Liberty Mutual Insurance and Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance.
The judge moved the July 15 case management hearing to Sept. 28 at 9 a.m.
Meanwhile, dueling summary judgment moves that Ruth heard arguments on in February remain pending in the case filed by chiropractor Frank Kaltenbronn over Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) discounts that he alleges the defendants took from him and other healthcare providers when the insurers weren't entitled to them.
The Liberty Mutual class action is nearly identical to a number of PPO class actions filed in
Madison and St. Clair counties in the early part of the last decade.
The suits were filed by the then-partnership of the Wood River Lakin Law Firm and Freed & Weiss firm of Chicago.
That partnership dissolved in 2007.
Ruth heard arguments on both Kaltenbronn's move for summary judgment and Liberty Mutual's in a hearing that lasted more than five hours.
To date, no order deciding the moves has been entered in the case file.
Robert Schmieder II represents the plaintiff class.
Thomas Keefe Jr. and others represent Liberty Mutual.
The case is Madison case number 04-L-1416.