A federal trial court in Iowa confirmed that first-party bad faith claims may be cognizable against both insurers and self-insured employers.  In Spencer v. Annett Holdings, Inc., 905 F.Supp.2d 953 (S.D. Iowa, Nov. 27, 2012), an over-the-road truck driver who was allegedly injured when he slipped and fell off  the back of his flatbed trailer sued his employer, a self-insured trucking company, alleging, among other things, that it acted in bad faith by refusing to pay outstanding medical bills, by denying and delaying necessary medical care and treatment, and by breaching a settlement agreement approved by the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner.   The trial court stated “[f]irst-party bad faith is an intentional tort that arises in the insurance context due to…

A federal trial court in Tennessee confirmed what has been the law in Tennessee for almost thirty years: no tort of bad faith exists between an insurer and its insured.  In Westfield Ins. Co. v. RLP Partners, LLC, 2013 WL 2383608 (M.D.Tenn. May 30, 2013), the District Court ruled that neither a recent enactment by the state legislature nor a 2012 Tennessee appellate court decision cited by the insured have changed the law. The trial court quickly discredited the insured’s arguments that there is a plausible bad faith claim under Tennessee common law because such “a cause of action was recognized” by a recent legislative enactment or the poor reading of a 2012 Tennessee Court of Appeals opinion, finding that…