The Oregon Supreme Court, answering a certified question by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, held that bad faith delay or denial of payment of an insurance claim did not state a claim under Oregon's Financial Elder Abuse Statute. In Bates v. Bankers Life and Casualty...
Bad Faith
Refining Florida’s Bad Faith Law
In order to bring a bad faith claim in Florida, the following three elements need to be established: (1) the insurer's liability for coverage needs to be determined; (2) the extent of the insured's damages needs to be determined; and (3) it must be established that...
Covenant Judgment Settlements In Washington Do Not Automatically Constitute A Waiver Of Attorney-Client Privilege And Work Product Protection When The Insured’s Claims For Bad Faith Against The Insurer Are Assigned To The Adverse Party
In Steel v. Philadelphia Indemnity Co., 381 P.3d 111 (2016), a daycare center employee was convicted of child rape and child molestation while working at a daycare center. The parents brought a negligence action against the center. The daycare center had $1 million in...
Timely Offering Policy Limits Does Not Immunize Insurer From Bad Faith Exposure
The California Supreme Court in Barickman v. Mercury Casualty Co., 2 Cal. App. 5th 508 (2nd Dist. 2016) held that the insurance carrier was liable for bad faith failure to settle, notwithstanding the fact that the carrier offered its policy limits to the claimants in...
California Court of Appeals Fixes Punitive Damage Ratio and Bad Faith Cases
Historically the United States Supreme Court has admonished trial courts with the high court's observation that "few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process." State Farm Mut...
INSURANCE COMPANY RELIANCE UPON IME REPORT TO SUPPORT RULE 12 B6 MOTION TO DISMISS IN BAD FAITH CASE DID NOT REQUIRE DISMISSAL
The South Dakota Supreme Court in Mordhorst v. Dakota Truck Underwriters and Risk Administrative Services 886 N.W.2d 322 (S.D 2016) recently found that a rule 12-B6 motion to dismiss was not appropriate in a worker's compensation bad faith case notwithstanding the...
A 10-to-1 RATIO OF COMPENSATORY DAMAGES TO PUNITIVE DAMAGES WAS RECENTLY PERMITTED BY THE CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEALS IN AN INSURANCE BAD FAITH CASE
The California court of appeals in Nickerson v. Stonebridge Insurance Co. 5 Cal App, 5th 1,209 Cal Rptr. 3d 690 (2d Dist., November 3, 2016) recently found that the Court was constrained by case law in California and the California constitution from allowing a...
THE CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEALS FINDS THAT A 10:1 RATIO OF COMPENSATORY DAMAGES TO PUNITIVE DAMAGES IS APPROPRIATE IN AN INSURANCE BAD FAITH CASE AND THAT THE RATIO SHOULD BE NO HIGHER
In Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co., 5 Cal.App.5th 1, 209 Cal.Rptr.3d 690 (2nd Dist. 2016), the California Court of Appeals recently reduced a $19M punitive damages award in an insurance bad faith case to $475,000 applying a 10:1 ratio of compensatory damages to...
IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON INSUREDS DO NOT WAIVE ATTORNEY-CLIENT AND WORK-PRODUCT PRIVILEGES WHEN THEY SEEK THE COURT’S APPROVAL OF A COVENANT JUDGMENT SETTLEMENT WHICH ASSIGNS TO THE ADVERSE PARTY THE INSURED’S BAD FAITH CLAIM AGAINST THE INSURER
In Steel v. Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co., 195 Wash.App. 811, 381 P.3d 111 (Wash. App. 2016), the Washington Court of Appeals held that insurance companies do not waive attorney-client privilege or work product protection when their insured enters into a covenant...
CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEALS FINDS THAT AN EXCESS INSURER CAN SUE A PRIMARY INSURER FOR BAD FAITH FAILURE TO SETTLE UNDER AN EQUITABLE CONTRIBUTION THEORY TO RECOVER THE EXCESS INSURER’S CONTRIBUTION TO SETTLEMENT OF A CLAIM AGAINST THE INSURED
The California Court of Appeals recently held that an excess judgment was not a necessary element to an equitable subrogation claim brought by an excess insurer against a primary insurer when the primary insurer failed to settle the underlying case. In ACE American...