News & Analysis as of

Bad Faith Appeals Insurance Litigation

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC

Fourth Circuit Reaffirms Necessary Prerequisites for Claiming Hayseeds Damages and Offers Guidance on Admissibility of Experts

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On June 5, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion that provides a blueprint to insurance companies for handling bad faith claims. The Fourth Circuit held in Sellman v....more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Ninth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for Allstate in Bad Faith Claim

In an issue of first impression, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for Allstate and held that the two-year statute of limitations for bad faith claims arising out of an uninsured/underinsured...more

Jenner & Block

Client Alert: First Circuit Parses Underlying Complaint to Find Duty to Defend and to Defeat Exclusions

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The duty of a liability insurer to defend a policyholder from litigation is typically described as broad and expansive, extending beyond the insurer’s duty to indemnify. The duty to defend generally obliges an insurer to...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fifth Circuit Weighs in on Aftermath of Texas Supreme Court’s Decisions Affecting Insurers’ Pre-Appraisal Award Payments and...

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Just a few short years ago, there was a bright line rule under Texas law concerning appraisal awards. If an insurer timely paid an appraisal award, that payment extinguished all of the insurer’s contractual and...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Insurer Entitled to Arbitrate Disputed UIM Claim Before Insured Could Pursue Bad Faith Action

Brett McIsaac v. Foremost Insurance Company Grand Rapids, Michigan, A160389 (Sonoma County Super. Ct. No. SCV-265433) (Filed 4/30/21; certified for publication 5/19/21) - McIsaac had an auto insurance policy with Foremost...more

White and Williams LLP

Eleventh Circuit Finds No Bad Faith Where Insurer Failed to Provide “Mirror-Image” Response to Claimant’s Demand

In Florida, an insurer is required to work diligently on the insured’s behalf to avoid an excess judgment, with the “same haste and precision as if it were in the insured’s shoes”. Harvey v. GEICO General Insurance Company,...more

Cozen O'Connor

A Jury Must Find An Insurer Acted Unreasonably In Order To Find Bad Faith Failure to Settle

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On March 8, 2021 the California Court of Appeal, reversing a $10 million verdict against Farmers, found that a jury must specifically find unreasonable acts by an insurer to support a “failure to settle” bad faith...more

Cozen O'Connor

Claims Handling: Questions Are the Answer

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The key issue in insurance bad faith litigation is whether the claims professional reasonably handled the claim. Throughout the claims-handling process, the claims professional should constantly ask him-or-herself whether the...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Keeping the Cap On the Policy: Unreasonable Conduct Is a Necessary Element of a “Bad Faith Failure to Settle” Claim

Pinto v. Farmers Ins. Exch., ___ Cal. App. 5th ___ (2021) - Over the past several years, the insurance industry in California has been plagued by waves of “bad faith failure to settle” claims. These claims arise out of a...more

Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP

The Perils of Playing Hard Ball

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A recent case from California, Barickman vs. Mercury Casualty, 2 Cal.App.5th 508 (2016) illustrates the perils that may arise when an insurance company, evidently playing hardball with its insured, refuses to deviate from its...more

Payne & Fears

Ninth Circuit Rejects Excess Insurer's Attempt to Dispute Exhaustion of Underlying Insurance

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This week, in AXIS Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corp., ____ F.3d ____, 2020 WL 5509743 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), the Ninth Circuit addressed an important question of first impression: When can an excess insurer...more

Greenberg Glusker LLP

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal Rules that Excess Insurer Cannot Challenge Exhaustion of Underlying Insurance on Coverage Grounds

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In Axis Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corporation, 2020 DJDAR 10114 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), a case of first impression under California law, the Ninth Circuit held that an excess insurer may not dispute exhaustion of...more

Carlton Fields

Don’t Lead Me On: Georgia Court of Appeals Finds Insurance Company Did Not Mislead Insured and Therefore Did Not Waive Policy’s...

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Insurance policies often contain “limitation-of-action” or suit limitation provisions, which contractually reduce the statute of limitations for an insured to assert a claim against an insurer. Depending on the state, such...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Empire State of Mind: New York Bad Faith Update

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WHILE THERE REMAINS NO BAD FAITH CAUSE OF ACTION IN NEW YORK, A RECENT APPELLATE DIVISION CASE OUT OF THE FIRST DEPARTMENT MAKES PLAIN THAT AN INSURED NEED NOT MEET A HEIGHTENED PLEADING STANDARD WITH RESPECT TO CONSEQUENTIAL...more

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Rejects Insurer-Defended Policyholder’s Bid to Expand Florida’s Bad Faith “Excess Judgment Rule” to Include...

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In Cawthorn v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., No. 18-12067 (11th Cir. Oct. 25, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Auto-Owners...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

California Bad Faith Claims Cannot Be “Slapped”

The California Court of Appeal recently disposed of a novel attack on bad faith law launched by Zurich American Insurance Company. In Miller Marital Deduction Trust, et al. v. Zurich American Insurance Company, 2019 DJDAR...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Insurers Beware: One Insurer’s Settlement Can Support a Bad Faith Failure-to-Settle Claim Against a Nonsettling Insurer

An insurer defending a claim against an insured that could exceed policy limits has a good faith obligation to settle the claim if possible. Failure to do so puts a nonsettling insurer at grave risk. An Eleventh Circuit...more

Pillsbury - Policyholder Pulse blog

Evolving Bad Faith Law: Pro-Policyholder Decision out of Minnesota

Since 2008, Minnesota has had a bad-faith statute that penalizes an insurance company for its unreasonable denial of a first-party insurance claim. But it was only earlier this month that a Minnesota appellate court...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Appeals in Insurance Litigation – Appreciating Standards of Review

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It is said that the first rule of a successful appeal is to win in the trial court. But, regardless of winning or losing in the trial court, one of the most important considerations in evaluating exposure and the likelihood...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona District Court Dismisses Bad Faith and Aiding & Abetting Claims Against TPA and Adjuster

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The Holding - In Centeno v. American Liberty Ins. Co., 2019 WL 568926 (D. Ariz. Feb. 12, 2019) (Order), an insurance bad faith case arising from a workers’ compensation claim, the Arizona District Court granted a motion to...more

Mayer Brown

Sixth Circuit Invalidates Tennessee’s Punitive-Damages Cap and Holds That Punitive Damages Are Available Under Tennessee Law For...

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Should divided panels of federal appellate courts really be deciding state-law issues of first impression? That’s what happened last month in Lindenberg v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. In Lindenberg, two Sixth Circuit...more

Carlton Fields

When Evidentiary Error Matters: Eleventh Circuit Affirms Decision to Grant Retrial

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently closed the book on litigation in which GEICO had been involved since 2010, holding that the granting of a retrial—which resulted in a GEICO victory after an initial...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Court of Appeals Enforces Workers' Comp Exclusion to MedPay Coverage

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The Holding - In Doneson v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 2018 WL 4781382 (Ariz.App. Oct. 3, 2018), an insurance bad faith case, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld an exclusion precluding MedPay benefits “if workers’ compensation...more

Cozen O'Connor

Fort Worth Court of Appeal Reverses Judgment Awarding Bad Faith Damages Against Insurer

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While the November 8, 2018 Court of Appeal of Texas, Fort Worth Division opinion reverses a trial court’s judgment on grounds of legal insufficiency and standing, the court’s analysis and application of current Texas bad...more

Troutman Pepper

Pa. Superior Court Vacates Bad-Faith Insurance Verdict, Cautioning Against Industrywide Condemnations

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In a highly anticipated decision, the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated an eyebrow-raising $21 million award for an auto policyholder and found that the insurer did not act in bad faith....more

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