Opinion ID: 199579
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The St. Paul claim and the history of this case

Text: 15 St. Paul began making payments on the Formoso claim shortly after receiving it in December of 1989 and continued to honor the claim until June of 1994. During that period, Formoso was seen by numerous doctors, including several performing Independent Medical Examinations (IMEs) on behalf of St. Paul. With one exception, none of these doctors also saw Milan. 5 Without exception, none were told of the prior injury. These doctors, including Formoso's own, created reports that were forwarded to St. Paul. In fact, Ellis's office routinely forwarded the medical reports it received on Formoso's condition despite Ellis's knowledge that those reports contained false information regarding Formoso's medical history. Indeed, Ellis testified that he never tried to dissuade Formoso from lying to doctors. All of these reports attributed Formoso's symptoms to the only accident the doctors knew of: the accident at the hotel. 16 St. Paul relied on these reports and their causation determinations until 1994, when it filed a motion for discontinuance to stop its payments to Formoso. At a conference on that motion on June 10th, Ellis admitted that he had known that Milan and Formoso were the same person from either December, 1989 or January, 1990. The discontinuance was eventually granted. 6 During the period of coverage, St. Paul paid $181,856.72 7 on the Formoso claim. 17 Approximately six months after the June conference, St. Paul filed the present action in the district court, alleging numerous counts against Ellis and Ellis & Ellis. 8 Specifically, St. Paul alleged that both Ellis and his firm in their representation of Formoso committed common law fraud; engaged in unfair trade practices in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A §§ 2, 3, & 11; committed statutory fraud in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 152 § 14(2); and acted negligently. Hotly contested from the outset, the case went to trial before a jury in April of 1998 and lasted ten days. At the conclusion of St. Paul's case-in-chief, the defendants moved for judgment as a matter of law on all counts. The court granted these motions from the bench. St. Paul filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court denied in a written memorandum expanding upon its earlier reasoning. St. Paul now appeals.