A roofing company that partnered with the McClenny, Moseley & Associates law firm to file hundreds of hurricane-damage claims in Louisiana is now suing the Texas firm’s Louisiana managing partner, alleging malpractice and economic damages.
Apex Roofing, an Alabama-based company that does business in Louisiana, filed the lawsuit this week in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. The defendant, Richard William Huye III, was recently suspended from practice by the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana has stayed more than 600 problematic Hurricane Ida claims filed by MMA.
Apex’s filing comes after a 21st Judicial District judge, Brian Abels, issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the law firm from spending any of the funds it has collected from clients using methods at odds with state law. The TRO applies to both APEX and MMA, whom Abels barred from acting on any filed lawsuits without proper notice.
“The terms of the TRO had no tangible or actionable impact on Apex as we have already terminated our working relationship with MMA as our legal advisor – fully upending the relationship between us – leaving no additional connections,” an Apex spokesperson told the Louisiana Record in an email. “Any misdeed by MMA was performed at their sole discretion and without Apex's knowledge. Apex explicitly disclaims any misdeed carried out by MMA."
In its legal complaint, Apex says it hired MMA in January of 2022 to determine if Apex customers had insurance policies that would allow them assign their benefits to Apex so that the roofing company could bill insurers while quickly repairing customers’ hurricane-damaged homes.
“Huye and MMA misled Apex to believe that most Louisiana homeowner policies were assignable,” the lawsuit says. “Having obtained an assignment in its favor to repair customers’ roofs, Huye and MMA were to have only represented Apex’s interest.”
MMA failed to do the necessary work to determine if the customers’ policies were assignable, according to the complaint. In turn, Huye and MMA made representations that claimed they were representing Apex customers rather than Apex, the lawsuit states.
“All of Huye’s and MMA’s actions and omissions set forth herein have caused Apex to lose hundreds if not thousands of customers, to have its reputation publicly smeared and to be damaged economically,” the complaint says.
The TRO was issued in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by Tangipahoa Parish resident Louis Carter III, who alleges he was the victim of a scheme involving both MMA, Apex and a company called Velawcity.
“... Apex wrongfully conspired with MMA, and its principals, to present the property owner’s claim to the insurance company by MMA falsely acting as counsel for the property owners,” Carter’s lawsuit states.