Firm Sues Insurer Again: A surgical instruments...

Firm Sues Insurer Again: A surgical instruments maker that has already won $58 million by suing a unit of its insurance company, Farmers Group Inc., this week sued the parent company too.

Earlier this month, Placentia’s Surgin Surgical Instrumentation Inc. won what its lawyer said was one of the largest punitive damage awards ever granted against an insurance company in Orange County.

Surgin alleged that the subsidiary--Truck Insurance Exchange--should have paid Surgin’s lawyers and costs when Surgin was sued for infringing on the patents of Alarcon Surgical Instruments Inc. in Irvine.

Surgin said it was forced to settle those lawsuits and lost millions of dollars in profits when it had to stop making a device used in cataract surgery.

In the second lawsuit, Surgin is asking for $260 million in damages.