State Farm Insurance has lost its fraud case in a long running dispute involving claims from Hurricane Katrina.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling against the Bloomington-based company.
State Farm had claimed the suit should have been dismissed because opposing attorneys violated a temporary secrecy order. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote there is no such requirement in federal law.
Whistle blowers claimed State Farm manipulated reports to shift responsibility from its own wind damage coverage to the federal government flood protection program.
State Farm lost the case in 2013, but appealed saying it should have been dismissed because opposing attorneys broke a secrecy rule.
Damages and fees in the suit will cost State Farm only about three million dollars.
But, the case led to many others on similar grounds including a 522-million-dollar fraud complaint against State Farm by the State of Mississippi.