State Farm Wins in Race Bias Suit Over Repair Shop Contracts

State Farm Mutual Automotive Insurance Company has won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging the insurer discriminated against a minority-owned repair shop wanting to participate in the Select Service Program for State Farm customers.

The Fifth Circuit in 2017 affirmed the previous dismissal of most of the discrimination claims brought by Body by Cook and owner Robert Cook. Only Body by Cook’s Section 1981 failure-to-contract race bias claim remained to be litigated in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

But the district court granted summary judgment to State Farm Nov. 16, saying that “no reasonable trier of ...