Miller v. Hartford Life Insurance Co. Year: 2010 Court: Supreme Court of Hawaii Case Number: SCCQ-11-0000329 Issue: Bad FaithEmotional Distress State: Hawaii A showing of bad faith is not contingent on the presence of any economic loss. Rather, UP argued, a claim of bad faith should rest on improper claim-handling alone.
Badiali v. New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company Year: 2012 Court: New Jersey Supreme Court Case Number: A-4870-09T2 Issue: Bad Faith State: New Jersey This case affords the New Jersey Supreme Court an opportunity to review how the New Jersey lower courts have resolved bad faith claims handling since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Pickett v. Lloyds, 131 N.J. 457 (1993). UP’s amicus brief argues that the lower…
State Farm Fire and Casualty Company vs. Shawn Brechbill Year: 2013 Court: Alabama Supreme Court Case Number: CV-2010-900034 Issue: Bad Faith State: Alabama UP weighed in as a friend of the court to ask that the Brechbill opinion be corrected to accurately state the law in the State of Alabama for the past 30 years with regard to insurer breach of contract and bad faith. Under AL law,…
Grayson v. Allstate Ins. Co. Year: 2014 Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit Case Number: 14-55959 Issue: Bad Faith State: California Under California law, the duty of good faith and fair dealing is implied in all insurance contracts. When an insured purchases insurance, they expect that their insurance carrier will act in good faith when they themselves tender a claim and also where an injured third-party…
Kelly v. State Farm Ins. Co. Year: 2015 Court: Louisiana Supreme Court Case Number: 2014-CQ-1921 Issue: Bad Faith State: Louisiana On certified question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the Louisiana Supreme Court was confronted with the issue of whether an insurer can be liable for statutory bad faith for failure to settle a claim when it never received a firm…
Letters to California Judicial Council re: Civil Jury Instructions for Bad Faith and Insurer Defense Cost Reimbursement Year: 2015 Court: Case Number: Issue: Bad Faith State: California UP submitted letters to the California Judicicial Council regarding proposed revisions to California Civil Jury Instructions (“CACI”) Nos. 2330-2337 and 2351: First, UP argued that the proposed language of CACI 2330-2337 conflates the standard for “bad faith” claim by collapsing the “unreasonably” and “without proper…
USAA Texas Lloyds Company v. Gail Menchaca Year: 2016 Court: Texas Supreme Court Case Number: 14-0721 Issue: Bad Faith State: Texas The Texas Insurance Code allows for a private right of action for bad faith when an insurance company violates certain claims handling standards. One of these standards is a failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of a claim. This is sufficient for a policyholder to…
Tamarin Lindenberg v. Jackson National Life Ins. Co. Year: 2016 Court: Tennessee Supreme Court Case Number: M2015-02349-SC-R23-CV Issue: Bad FaithPunitive Damages State: Tennessee In many jurisdictions when an insurance company breaches an insurance contract, it not only is required to pay what it owed originally and wrongfully delayed or denied, it also must pay attorneys fees and punitive damages. The rationale is that if an insurance company only…
Rancosky v. Washington National Ins. Co. Year: 2017 Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Case Number: 28 WAP 2016 Issue: Bad Faith State: Pennsylvania Under Pennsylvania law, insurance companies are subject to attorneys fees and punitive damages for acting in bad faith towards their policyholders. State law also provides that courts may award interest 3% above the prime rate when a policyholder prevails in a bad faith claim. This…
Alexandra Sims v. State Farm Automobile Ins. Co. Year: 2017 Court: U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit Case Number: 17-1333 Issue: Bad Faith State: Arkansas Drivers who purchase underinsured motorist coverage expect that they are protecting themselves against disaster from at-fault drivers who don’t carry liability insurance or whose policy limits are too low to cover the damages. When an insurance company refuses to indemnify the policyholder for damages exceeding…
Comments to California Judicial Council on CACI No. 2334 Year: 2017 Court: Case Number: Issue: Bad Faith State: California UP submitted comments to the California Judicial Council in response to proposed changes to California Civil Jury Instruction 2234 – Bad Faith (Third Party)—Refusal to Accept Reasonable Settlement Within Liability Policy Limits—Essential Factual Elements. UP pointed out four areas where the instruction needs revision: (1)…
James Duepner v. GEICO Casualty Co. Year: 2017 Court: Arizona Supreme Court Case Number: CV-17-0216-PR Issue: Bad Faith State: Arizona Punitive damages are an essential check on abuse and overreaching by insurance companies making coverage decisions and adjusting claims. There is a vast gulf between the power and wealth of insurance companies and their insurance consumers. It is true that many insurers act responsibly in…
Labarre et al v. Texas Brine Co., LLC (Indian Harbor Ins. Co.) Year: 2017 Court: Louisiana Supreme Court Case Number: 2017-CC-1761 Issue: Bad FaithStatute of Limitations State: Louisiana Under Louisiana law (statute), a policyholder’s coverage claim against its insurer should be subject to a 10-year prescriptive period. Prescriptive statutes are to be strictly construed against prescription and in favor of the obligation sought to be extinguished. A primary reason for these rules is…
House Concurrent Resolution No. 89 Position Paper Year: 2018 Court: Case Number: House Concurrent Resolution No. 89 Issue: Bad Faith State: Louisiana UP’s position paper submitted to the Louisiana State Law Institute to urge and request the Institute support application of a ten-year prescriptive period to an insured’s bad faith claims against its insurer.
Harvey v. Geico Year: 2017 Court: Florida Supreme Court Case Number: SC17-85 Issue: Bad Faith State: Florida The Florida Supreme Court held there was substantial evidence to support the jury’s finding that Geico acted in bad faith in failing to settle a fatal car crash claim against its policyholder and reinstated the jury’s $9.2 million verdict against Geico. See: https://www.uphelp.org/blog/guest-blog-supreme-court-fl-rules-favor-policyholder-application-floridas-bad-faith-law
Fils v. Starr Indemnity & Liability Insurance Company Year: 2018 Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal, Third Circuit Case Number: Docket No. 17 00896-CA Issue: Bad Faith State: Louisiana In this case, UP weighed in to preserve Louisiana residents’ rights to be compensated when they’ve been harmed by bad faith conduct by an insurance company. Our Friend of the Court brief points out that the District Court erred in maintaining Star Indemnity & Liability…
Fadeeff v. State Farm General Insurance Co. Year: 2020 Court: First District Court of Appeal, Division 2 Case Number: A155691 Issue: Bad Faith State: California One of UP’s Platinum sponsors, Kerley Shaffer, LLP, obtained a reversal of summary judgment in favor of an insurance company in a bad faith claim. Fadeeff v. State Farm General Insurance Co involved the application of the “genuine dispute” rule – a rule that allows…