Ronnie Hogan sued Provident Life & Accident Insurance Company (Provident) and Unum Group Corp. (Unum) asserting claims under Florida law that the insurance companies had failed to attempt in good faith to settle his claim. Hogan also accused the insurance companies of making misrepresentations that would have made a settlement less favorable for him. He accused them of exercising general business practices that involved mishandling claims, breaching their fiduciary duty, common law fraud, negligence and even conspiracy to commit statutory violations. Provident and Unum asked the judge to dismiss Hogan’s case based on a failure to state his claim or at least to pass judgment based on the pleadings presented by the two sides.