A Texas rancher facing financial hardship says he’s being sued by State Farm for a car accident he had nothing to do with.
The man claims he’s never owned the vehicle in question, doesn’t know anyone involved, and wasn’t even in the city where the crash occurred.
State Farm Allegedly Sues Wrong Person
In a viral video with more than 811,000 views, Brian Firebaugh (@cattleguy) explains his bewildering legal situation. According to Firebaugh, on Dec. 7, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas, a man named Sanchez was driving a 2002 Ford F-150 and crashed into a couple identified as Mr. and Mrs. Reyes.
According to Firebaugh, Sanchez was uninsured. So the Reyes used their State Farm insurance, which paid out thousands in uninsured motorist claims, Firebaugh says. He uses “Snake Farm” as a derogatory nickname for State Farm throughout the video.
When State Farm ran the VIN number for the truck to find who might be liable, Firebaugh’s name somehow came up in their system. The company is now suing him to recover those damages, he says.
The problem is that Firebaugh claims he has no connection to the accident whatsoever.
“I have no idea who Mr. Sanchez is. I’ve never owned a 2002 Ford F-150, and I was not in San Antonio on 12/07/2024. I have no idea who Mr. and Mrs. Reyes is,” he says.
When Firebaugh contacted the company, they were dismissive and told him his name popped up in their system when they were looking for someone to hold responsible for the damages.
“They’re like, ‘Beats us. Your name just popped up in our system, so now we’re suing you,'” he says.
The lawsuit comes at a particularly difficult time for Firebaugh. He says he’s experiencing severe financial hardship. He’s sold his entire cattle herd and all his equipment at auction.
“I have 14 cents in my account. And I’m being sued,” he says.
Firebaugh says he refused to give State Farm information about his own insurance carrier. He says he now has to pay an attorney to fight the lawsuit.
He’s started a GoFundMe to help with the financial hardships he’s facing.
How Can This Happen?
When an uninsured driver causes an accident, the injured party’s insurance company often pays out under uninsured motorist coverage and then pursues the at-fault driver to recover those costs through a legal process called subrogation.
According to MWL Law, through subrogation the insurer may pursue a final judgment against the at-fault uninsured motorist. Once a final order is entered, the at-fault party has 30 days to satisfy the judgment, or the DMV can suspend their license, tags, and registration until the judgment is satisfied.
However, errors can occur when insurance companies search for the liable party. VIN database errors are relatively common, according to Detailed Vehicle History. The site explains that human error during data entry can result in incorrect VIN input. That includes typos, transposed digits, or misinterpretation of VIN characters.
Plus, not all vehicle history databases are complete or up-to-date. Some have limited databases that may incorrectly match VINs to owners.
Capital One’s Auto Navigator reports that VIN errors on titles and registrations are often the result of typographical mistakes at dealerships. The site notes that if a dealership types the wrong VIN on the original bill of sale, it can create a cascade of problems, potentially linking the wrong person to a vehicle they’ve never owned.
@cattleguy State Farm – BURN! #cattleguy #nocattleguy #statefarm #snakefarm
Commenters React
“I work for Texas Farm Bureau… give them this information, we have insurance lawyers for a reason. They will represent for you and can almost promise you this will be dropped,” a top comment suggested.
“Jesus my guy can’t catch a break anywhere,” a person said.
“You are going about this the wrong way… your current insurance would get this straightened out in a few min actually. I had a similar think happen to me. usaa took care of progressive quickly. they paid nothing out nor did I,” another wrote.
“I will be canceling my snake farm insurance this week and switching to someone else as I will not support a company who does this to anyone,” a commenter added.
BroBible reached out to Firebaugh for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to State Farm via email.