State Farm’s CEO Is Set to Face Questions Under Oath Oct. 19 as Two Oklahoma Hail Trials Close In

Oklahoma City — October 15, 2026 · The Hail Files trial guide, updated as the cases move

Who is suing State Farm in Oklahoma?

Three cases are driving the story. In Hursh v. State Farm (Oklahoma County No. CJ-2025-2626, Judge Amy Palumbo), Billy and Lacy Hursh of Tulsa sued after State Farm denied their hail-damage claim; their case leads more than 800 similar lawsuits pending against State Farm in Oklahoma. In West v. State Farm (Comanche County No. CJ-2025-135, Judge Grant Sheperd), Neil and Lacy West sued State Farm and the Nancy Holcomb Insurance Agency. And in State of Oklahoma ex rel. Drummond v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (Cleveland County No. CJ-2026-1066, Judge Jeff Virgin), the state alleges violations of the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act and the state’s racketeering law, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment in State Farm’s handling of wind and hail claims.

The homeowners allege that State Farm ran a nationwide wind and hail claim initiative designed to reduce roof-claim payouts. According to unsealed court documents and news reports, internal materials reference denial rates around 39 percent, average savings of roughly $15,000 per denied claim and about $1.4 billion in reduced indemnity payments in the initiative’s first year. State Farm disputes the allegations and says its roof-claim initiative was an effort to improve the accuracy and quality of wind and hail claim handling. These are claims to be decided at trial.

When will State Farm’s CEO be deposed?

On September 1, Judge Palumbo denied State Farm’s motion to excuse Farney from being deposed in Hursh. On October 9 she entered an agreed order: Farney will sit for a single four-hour deposition that the parties agree will count in both Hursh and West, to be completed October 19 in Bloomington, Illinois, or on another date both sides agree to. The lawyers may ask about his personal knowledge of “all issues relevant to the claims and defenses” in both cases. Before the deposition, State Farm agreed to a targeted search for wind and hail documents and communications involving Farney about the Fix Profit Task Force, the Fire Model Enhancement and Senior Executive Offsite meetings. State Farm also agreed not to pursue further motions or appeals over the deposition, and it reserved its objections to the relevance and admissibility of his testimony. A State Farm declaration says Farney “did not attend FME meetings.” The homeowners’ October 8 supplement says they intend to use the disputed memo described below at his deposition and asks the court for guidance on it first; State Farm says the material cannot be used until the court rules on its privilege claim. Read the agreed order.

What is the fight over State Farm’s 2021 ‘Senior Executive Offsite’ memo?

In Hursh, the homeowners filed as Exhibit 14 a set of emails and two versions of a draft October 2021 memo titled “P&C Fire Claims Roofs — Quality & Service,” which State Farm says was prepared for a Senior Executive Offsite meeting. The homeowners say the memo “went directly to the CEO and C-suite.” State Farm says the blacked-out passages are its lawyers’ advice, requests for that advice and internal messages relaying it, protected as attorney-client communications and work product, and that two versions went out with incomplete redactions by mistake; on October 5 it asked Judge Palumbo to uphold the redactions. On October 1, the judge had written in a court minute that the court “has been presented with evidence of white box redactions, no meta data, no privilege log, and others.” The minute does not say who presented that evidence or which documents it concerns. No ruling on State Farm’s privilege claim had appeared in the docket text as of October 13.

On October 8 the homeowners filed a supplement saying an e-discovery expert found that State Farm produced one email from the memo’s family under five separate production numbers and produced the same draft twice (State Farm calls them two versions), redacted two different ways. On October 9, State Farm filed an emergency motion to strike that supplement. It argues that once it notified the homeowners of its privilege claim, Oklahoma law barred them from using or disclosing the disputed material until the court rules, even in a sealed filing; the same statute, as quoted in the motion, also lets a notified party “promptly present the information to the court under seal for a determination of the claim.” Besides striking the supplement, State Farm asks the court to order the homeowners to stop using the material until it rules and to return or sequester it, and to award State Farm its fees and expenses as a sanction. It says its response to the homeowners’ underlying motion over its electronic records is “forthcoming”; that response had not appeared on the docket as of October 13. A notice of hearing sets the motion for December 17, 2026, at 10 a.m. The homeowners dispute that the material is privileged; as of October 13 they had not filed a response to the motion. The full story is in Part 10 of The Hail Files.

When are the trials?

West v. State Farm: expected November 9, and contested. As of the October 14 docket check, no trial date appears in the docket text. The defendants’ September 22 motion to move the trial, described below, says the scheduling order leaves the date to be set at the October 22 pretrial conference, and it described November 2, the first jury docket after that conference, as the homeowners’ expectation at the time. At a September 24 hearing, the homeowners’ lawyer told Judge Sheperd they “want to keep our trial date the second week of November.” State Farm’s October 9 motion on expert witnesses says the homeowners “insist this case is going to trial on November 9, 2026” but “have not complied with the obligations of the discovery code to put the parties in a position to do so”; it asks the judge to compel expert discovery or exclude untimely expert evidence. A newspaper’s request to film the trial says it understands trial is scheduled for that date, “subject to the Court’s current setting.” In that September 22 motion, State Farm and the Holcomb agency asked the judge to move the trial to a county outside the judicial district or set it after November, citing plaintiff Neil West’s candidacy for district judge in the November 3 election and pretrial publicity. The homeowners filed a response opposing that motion on October 12, and the hearing transcript shows the judge setting it for October 22 at 10 a.m.; no ruling on it appeared in the docket text as of October 14. As of that check, summary-judgment motions by State Farm and the agency were also pending; the homeowners filed their responses October 9.

Hursh v. State Farm: December 7. An agreed amended scheduling order entered September 22 sets a seven-day jury trial beginning December 7, 2026, at 9 a.m. before Judge Palumbo. The same order made October 15 the deadline for all motions, including dispositive motions, and expert disclosures; motions in limine are due November 1, challenges to expert witnesses November 10, and the pretrial conference is November 19. Separately, the October 1 docket entry gives the parties until November 10 to file briefs on their positions on media coverage.

The Attorney General’s case. On September 28, Judge Virgin denied State Farm’s motion to dismiss the state’s lawsuit, according to The Journal Record and the Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog; the written order had not been posted to the public docket as of October 9. Denying a motion to dismiss lets a case proceed; it is not a finding that the allegations are true, and State Farm denies them. State Farm’s separate motion to disqualify the state’s outside counsel, Whitten Burrage, the firm that also represents the homeowners in Hursh and West, is set for a hearing November 9 at 9 a.m.; as of the October 9 docket check, the Attorney General and the firm had not responded to it on the docket.

Will the trials be on camera?

That is up to the judges. On October 13, The Lawton Constitution asked Judge Sheperd for permission to photograph, record and broadcast public portions of the West trial, including opening statements, testimony, closing arguments and the announcement of the verdict. Its proposed protocol allows at most one still camera and one fixed video camera, with no coverage of jurors or jury selection and the court free to stop coverage at any time. The newspaper’s application does not claim that any party has consented, and it asks that the lawyers have a chance to object before the judge rules. In Hursh, Judge Palumbo has ordered the parties to file briefs on the media by November 10; her October 1 minute reads: “Court put media guardrails now, and allow media potentially at trial.” Read the newspaper’s application.

What does State Farm say?

State Farm denies the homeowners’ and the Attorney General’s allegations. Asked about the discovery disputes in Hursh, it told KOKH FOX 25 that “the characterizations by the plaintiffs’ attorneys are false.” It told FOX23, in an October 1 report on the executives’ depositions, that “neither selectively cited documents nor portrayals of testimony from recent depositions change the truth: State Farm evaluates each claim based on the facts of the loss and the coverage purchased and pays the benefits available under the policy.” In court, it argues that the memo passages it withheld are privileged, that the homeowners’ use of them breaks Oklahoma’s discovery rules, and that the West trial should be moved or delayed.

What does this mean for Oklahoma homeowners?

For policyholders with their own storm claims, the practical facts are unchanged: the allegations in these cases are allegations, State Farm disputes them, and a policyholder’s own claim is governed by their own policy and their own insurer’s decisions. What the trials can do is put sworn testimony and documents on the public record. If the cases reach a jury, jurors, not news coverage, will decide the homeowners’ claims.

Key dates

Court schedules can change; the Trial Watch calendar is updated as new filings appear.

Where can I read the documents?

The filings linked in this guide are public court records, hosted free and full-text searchable in The Hail Files archive at docs.alliedemergencyservices.com; some filings described here, such as the homeowners’ October 12 response in West, are available only at the court clerk’s office. Start with the agreed order for the CEO’s deposition, State Farm’s emergency motion to strike and its notice of hearing, The Lawton Constitution’s application to film the West trial, the October 1 court minute, State Farm’s October 5 privilege brief, the homeowners’ October 8 supplement (public version) and State Farm and the Holcomb agency’s motion to move the West trial.

More from The Hail Files: “The Denial Enterprise” · Part 4: Two Trials, 800,000 Pages · Part 5: The Accenture Motion · Part 6: State Farm Asks a Judge to Throw the Attorney General’s Lawyers Off the Case · Part 7: State Farm Wants Out of Lawton · Part 8: “A Little Worried” · Part 9: ‘Outcome-Based Claim Handling’ · Part 10: ‘Legal Implications of Language’.

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