State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v,. Shelly R. Coker

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (“State Farm”) sued Shelly Coker in federal district court seeking a declaratory judgment that it had no duty to defend and indemnify her in a state court negligence suit. Before the district court ruled on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, the state court dismissed the underlying negligence suit with prejudice because it found the plaintiffs had perpetrated fraud on the court, a ruling those plaintiffs did not appeal. State Farm then filed a suggestion of mootness in the federal declaratory judgment action. The district court…