The United States District Court for the Southern District of California recently considered whether the carrier’s late payment of the insureds’ economic damages eliminated a claim for bad faith and held that it does not. Polcyn v. Liberty Mut’l Ins. …
Just because there is no insurance policy may not mean there is no cause of action for bad faith according to a recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision analyzing the Joint Underwriting Program (“JUP”) statute. Willis v. Swain case. — P.3d …
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 …
The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, recently held that an insurer that breached its duty to defend could not later rely on otherwise applicable exclusions to deny coverage for indemnification. Under this apparently new rule, an …
In Capstone Building Corp. v. American Motorists Ins. Co., 2013 Conn. LEXIS 187 (Conn. June 11, 2013), the Supreme Court of Connecticut declined to recognize a cause of action for an insurer’s alleged bad faith conduct in investigating a general …
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 …
Ever Had A Common Law Bad Faith Claim Dismissed? Read more »
C. Wesley Vines, Admitted to Practice in OK since 1983 and TX since 1990 In light of the recent devastating storms in Oklahoma, it is worth bearing in mind: (1) Oklahoma’s basic rules for interpreting insurance policies, including the “reasonable …
Claims Handling Reminders for Oklahoma Storm Losses Read more »
On March 13, 2013, the Oregon legislature introduced Senate Bill 814 to create sweeping reforms on environmental claims handling regulations and available remedies for insureds facing liability for cleanup of contaminated property located in the state. The proposed legislation would …
On April 15, 2013, a New York trial court granted the insured’s request for the production of certain claims file material and previously sealed discovery in Estée Lauder Inc. v. OneBeacon Insurance Group LLC et al., index number 602379/2005, leaving …
Last week, the Montana Supreme Court held that the insurer acted reasonably when it stopped payments based upon its reliance on a prior order from the Workers’ Compensation Court (“WCC”). Steward v. Liberty Northwest Ins. Corp., 2013 WK 1739577, *7 …