Apex Roofing and Restoration: Fraud, Lawsuits, and Complaints

Apex Roofing and Restoration, the Birmingham, Alabama-based contractor, is facing legal trouble on three fronts: a Louisiana criminal investigation and class action tied to an alleged hurricane insurance fraud scheme run with the Texas law firm McClenny, Moseley & Associates; a federal child labor penalty after a 15-year-old worker fell to his death on one of its job sites in 2019; and a string of Florida appellate cases over insurance assignments and appraisal disputes. The Apex Roofing and Restoration lawsuits stretch across at least four states and include regulators, insurers, homeowners, and the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Louisiana Hurricane Fraud Allegations

The most serious matter involves Apex’s alleged role in a scheme tied to McClenny, Moseley & Associates (MMA). According to a class action and regulatory findings, MMA used Apex employees to approach Louisiana homeowners whose properties had been damaged by Hurricanes Laura and Ida in 2020 and 2021. Apex workers would suggest a home had storm damage, offer repairs, and have the homeowner sign a work order and an assignment of benefits. Neither document mentioned MMA. The assignment transferred the homeowner’s insurance claim rights to Apex, which then funneled the claims to MMA for litigation against insurers.¹

The Louisiana Department of Insurance identified 43 cases involving MMA and Apex and interviewed 25 of the homeowners. Many said they had never hired MMA. MMA’s Louisiana managing attorney, R. William Huye III, admitted in court filings that he had told insurers he was acting for homeowners when he was actually representing Apex Roofing.² On February 13, 2023, MMA acknowledged in federal court that it had falsely claimed to represent policyholders in 856 instances when it was actually representing Apex.³

Regulatory Findings and Criminal Investigation

In February 2023, the Louisiana Department of Insurance issued a cease and desist order to MMA and its principals, citing evidence that MMA and Apex “participated in a fraudulent scheme involving fraudulent insurance acts.”¹ Then-Insurance Commissioner James Donelon later levied $2 million in fines against the firm and its principals in May 2023 for unfair trade practices and insurance fraud involving over 850 homeowners.⁴ Those fines were overturned on January 31, 2025, when the Division of Administrative Law ruled the insurance department lacked jurisdiction to issue the orders and fines.⁵

In October 2023, the Louisiana State Police opened a criminal investigation into both MMA and Apex Roofing. The complaint listed potential charges of insurance fraud, forgery, bank fraud, monetary instrument abuse, and unlawful solicitation of employment for legal practitioners.² An FBI investigation confirmed in June 2024 also remains active, though no federal criminal charges have been reported.³ Apex’s attorney, Peter J. Butler, has denied wrongdoing, stating, “Apex did not violate any laws.”

A homeowner class action, Monson v. McClenny Moseley & Associates (Case No. 4:23-cv-00928), was filed on behalf of homeowners allegedly solicited unlawfully by the defendants. A federal judge denied MMA’s motion to dismiss in March 2024. The case was terminated on December 6, 2024.⁶

The 2019 Teen Worker Death and Child Labor Penalty

On July 1, 2019, a 15-year-old worker on his first day fell roughly 50 feet while working on the roof of the Cullman Casting Corporation building in Cullman, Alabama. He had been installing insulation and metal roofing when he stepped from the roofing material, fell through the insulation, and struck the concrete floor below. He suffered fractures to his skull, ribs, and wrist and was pronounced dead at the scene.⁷⁸

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Apex had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor hazardous occupation order, which prohibits employing anyone under 18 in roofing work. Apex paid $117,175 in civil penalties through the department’s enhanced penalty program for violations that cause the death or serious injury of a minor.⁹ Apex said the teenager was a sibling of a subcontractor’s worker who had been brought to the site without the company’s knowledge or permission.¹⁰

The same OSHA inspection produced further citations: a repeat fall-protection violation carrying a $53,039 penalty, and a serious violation for residential roofing requirements with a $13,260 penalty. A 2021 citation added another serious fall-protection violation at openings, also at $13,260.⁸

Florida Insurance Lawsuits

Before Florida barred post-loss assignments of benefits in 2023, Apex routinely took over homeowners’ insurance claims after storm damage and sued insurers when it considered payouts too low. Two appellate decisions illustrate how those disputes played out.

Apex Roofing v. State Farm

Acting as assignee for homeowner James Derrick, Apex filed a bad faith claim against State Farm after the insurer’s initial payments fell short of what Apex estimated a full roof replacement would cost. Apex submitted a Civil Remedy Notice in April 2019. Rather than pay during the 60-day statutory cure period, State Farm invoked the policy’s appraisal process, and an appraisal award was paid months later. The trial court sided with State Farm, finding the appraisal paused the cure deadline. In July 2022, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed, holding that invoking appraisal does not automatically toll the statutory cure period as a matter of law.¹¹

Apex Roofing v. USAA

In February 2020, homeowner Monica Williams sustained property damage and contracted with Apex for repairs. She signed an AOB on July 20, 2020, and Apex prepared its itemized cost estimate the next day. After USAA paid an amount Apex considered insufficient, Apex sued for statutory bad faith. USAA argued the AOB was void because Florida law required it to “contain” the itemized estimate at signing, and the one-day gap meant it did not.¹²

The trial court agreed with USAA and dismissed the complaint. On October 2, 2024, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal reversed, ruling that whether two documents executed one day apart form a single binding contract is a factual question that cannot be resolved at the dismissal stage. The court also noted it was not bound by the Fourth District’s contrary decision in Kidwell Group v. United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. The mandate issued on January 13, 2025, and Apex filed a voluntary dismissal on December 10, 2025, ending the appellate case.¹³

Florida has since closed the door on this model. Senate Bill 2-D in 2022 repealed the one-way attorney fee provision that let contractors recover legal costs from insurers, and Senate Bill 2A, effective March 2023, prohibited post-loss AOB agreements entirely for residential and commercial property insurance.¹⁴

Consumer Complaints

Alongside the litigation, Apex has drawn a steady flow of consumer complaints. Its Better Business Bureau profile shows the company is not BBB-accredited and has accumulated 47 complaints over three years, with 13 closed in the most recent twelve months. A recurring theme is aggressive, unsolicited door-to-door sales in neighborhoods with “No Soliciting” signs. Other complaints allege that free inspections led to consumers being pressured into signing service contracts or insurance claim assignments without adequate disclosure. Apex’s customer service typically responds by adding complainants to a “do not contact” list or offering partial remedies for property damage caused during work.¹⁵

1
ClassAction.org. McClenny Moseley and Associates Hit With Class Action Over Allegedly Unlawful Solicitation of Hurricane Damage Claims
2
Claims Journal. Louisiana State Police Investigate McClenny Moseley, Apex Roofing
3
Monson Firm. McClenny Moseley Takedown
4
Louisiana Department of Insurance. Temple Issues Statement Disagreeing With Ruling on McClenny Moseley Associates Fraud Case
5
KPLC. Texas Law Firm Won’t Have to Pay $2M Fine for Alleged Fraud Scheme Against Hurricane Laura Victims
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CourtListener. Monson v. McClenny Moseley Associates PLLC
7
U.S. Department of Labor. DOL News Release
8
OSHA. Inspection Detail for Apex Roofing and Restoration LLC
9
OHS Online. DOL Finds Roofing Company Violated Child Labor Laws Following Teen Worker’s Death
10
ABC 33/40. Alabama Roofing Contractor Pays After Teen Dies in Fall at Work Site
11
FindLaw. Apex Roofing and Restoration LLC v. State Farm Florida Insurance Company
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FindLaw. Apex Roofing and Restoration LLC v. United Services Automobile Association
13
Florida Courts. Case Detail: 1D2022-3990
14
Florida Roof Authority. Assignment of Benefits Roofing Florida
15
Better Business Bureau. Apex Roofing and Restoration LLC Complaints