News & Analysis as of

Punitive Damages Bad Faith Insurance Litigation

Cozen O'Connor

A New Era for Extra-Contractual Damages in Oregon - What We Know and What We Are Learning Six Months Since Moody

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The start of 2024 marked the end of an insurance era in Oregon. On December 29, 2023—the last Friday before the new year—the Oregon Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union,...more

Marshall Dennehey

Pa. Supreme Court Evaluates Constitutional Parameters of a Jury’s Punitive Damage Award

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While it is well known that an insured has a clear and convincing standard of proving bad faith in order to recover such damages, it is lesser recognized that an insured does not have to prove outrageous conduct or evil...more

Wiley Rein LLP

California Court Asserts Insurer Bad Faith

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The United States District Court for the Southern District of California, applying California law, has held that a professional liability insurer acted in bad faith by unreasonably maintaining its position that its policy did...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Insurance Team Year End Review

Throughout 2022, Sheppard Mullin’s insurance practice group demonstrated excellence in all stages of litigation, continuing to solidify its role as trusted counsel to the nation’s leading insurers, including Liberty Mutual,...more

White and Williams LLP

$500,000 Punitive Damages Award in Bad Faith Action Shocks Delaware Court’s Conscience and Justifies New Trial on Liability and...

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The Delaware Superior Court in Powell v. AmGuard Insurance Company, C.A. No. K17C-11-003 JJC, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 109 (Del. Super. Ct. Mar. 2, 2020) (Clark, J.) recently held that a jury’s $500,000 punitive damages award...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Regional Claim Supervisor Qualifies as “Managing Agent,” Supporting Award of Punitive Damages

In Mazik v. GEICO General Ins. Co. (No. B281372, filed 5/17/19), a California appeals court upheld a judgment and award of punitive damages for bad faith delay of an underinsured motorist claim, on the ground that a claim...more

Dickinson Wright

Sixth Circuit Allows Both Punitive Damages and Bad Faith Damages Against Insurance Company on Bad Faith Refusal to Pay

Dickinson Wright on

Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Lindenberg v. Jackson Nat’l Life Ins. Co., 912 F.3d 348 (6th Cir. 2018), ruled that a plaintiff may recover both bad faith damages and punitive damages...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

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

$25.5 Million Oklahoma Verdict: Jackpot Justice or Case Study on Bad Faith Litigation?

We all know how prevalent bad faith claims are. It seems like almost every case involving disputed policy benefits includes one. Many have no merit and should be disposed of on summary judgment. The rest, however, arguably...more

Carlton Fields

Dot The I’s And Cross The T’s: The Importance Of Clarity In Claim Communications And The Availability Of Punitive Damages For An...

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The Georgia Court of Appeals recently made waves in Hughes v. First Acceptance Insurance Company of Georgia, Inc., 343 Ga. App. 693 (2017). First, it aggrandized the role of a jury in determining the existence of an offer to...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Jury Awards Over $6 Million Against Insurer in Bad Faith Case

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The Award - In McClure v. CC Services Inc. & Country Life Insurance Company dba Country Life Financial, an Arizona insurance bad faith case arising from a disability claim, a jury awarded $1.29 million in compensatory...more

Mayer Brown

Ninth Circuit Issues Mixed-Bag Decision On Punitive Damages In Insurance Bad-Faith Case

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The Ninth Circuit recently issued an unpublished memorandum opinion reducing a $2.5 million punitive award against GEICO to $1,064,282.44—four times the compensatory damages—in a Montana insurance bad-faith case. When it...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona District Court Denies Motion to Remand in Bad Faith Case, Despite Plaintiff Seeking Only $57,000 in Compensatory Damages

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The Holding - In Hoarau v. Safeco Ins. Co. of America, 2017 WL 3328078 (D.Ariz. August 4, 2017), the Arizona District Court denied an insured's Motion to Remand in an insurance bad faith, punitive damages, and declaratory...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Reverses Award of Punitive Damages in Bad Faith Case Again

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The Holding - In Preciado v.Young American Insurnace Company, 2017 WL 2805631 ( Ariz.App . June 29, 2017) (unpublished), the Arizona Court of Appeals held the trial court erroneously failed to grant an Insurer’s motion for...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Appeals Court Explains Punitive Damages Awards For Extreme Reprehensibility Or Unusually Small, Hard-To-Detect Or Hard-To-Measure...

In Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co. (No. B234271A, filed 11/3/16), (“Nickerson II”) a California appeals court outlined the requirements for complying with the single-digit multiplier annunciated as a Constitutional...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Court of Appeals Reverses $1 Million Award of Punitive Damages in Insurance Bad Faith Case for Alleged “Institutional Bad...

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In Sobieski v. Am. Standard Ins. Co. of Wisconsin, 2016 WL 5436588 (Ariz.App. Sept. 29, 2016), despite upholding a bad faith judgment for an insurer conducting an unreasonable investigation and denying a claim, the Arizona...more

Cozen O'Connor

Genuine Dispute Defeats Both Bad Faith and Elder Abuse

Cozen O'Connor on

The Paslays sued State Farm for failing to pay a portion of the damage caused to their Pacific Palisades house by a heavy rainstorm and for forcing them to move back into the house while it was still under construction. The...more

Cozen O'Connor

Some Lessons From Berg v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co.

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On July 22, 2015, the Pennsylvania trial court in Berg v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., Civ. Action No. 98-813 (Pa. Common Pleas, Jul. 22, 2015) filed a supplemental opinion under Pa. R.A.P. 1925(a) in connection with the appeal...more

Mayer Brown

Third Circuit Holds That Under Pennsylvania Law An Insured Against Whom Punitive Damages Have Been Imposed May Not Recover Those...

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As a matter of public policy, Pennsylvania (like a number of other states) prohibits insuring against punitive damages. But what happens if an insurer refuses to settle a case against a policyholder within policy limits and...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Reduces Punitive Damages in Insurance Bad Faith Case Again: Arellano v. Primerica Life Insurance

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In Arellano v. Primerica Life Insurance Company, 235 Ariz. 371, 332 P.3d 597 (App. 2014), despite finding an insurer’s conduct moderately to highly reprehensible, the Arizona Court of Appeals recently reduced a punitive...more

Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP

District of South Carolina: No Support For Award of Punitive Damages Where Insured Failed To Prove Recklessness by Insurer

Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. JT Walker Indus., Inc., No. 2:08-02043-MBS, 2014 WL 6773517 (D.S.C. Dec. 2, 2014). The U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina sets aside a jury’s verdict awarding punitive...more

K&L Gates LLP

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Holds Policyholders May Assign Their Statutory Right to Recover Punitive Damages Arising from Insurer’s...

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In an issue of first impression, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held in Allstate Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Wolfe that a policyholder may assign statutory bad faith claims under Pennsylvania’s bad faith statute,...more

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