An insured Construction Company filed suit to recover its mechanics' lien of $4,938.10. The money was allegedly owed by Mr. Robert Etchison under a contract to install a paved driveway and two drainage pipes on Mr. Etchison's property. When the Construction Company sued him, Mr. Etchison counterclaimed in five counts.
The Construction Company's liability carrier, Westfield Insurance Company, denied all Insurance Coverage under the liability policy to the Construction Company including any defense to Mr. Etchison's counterclaim. The Coverage issue was decided in a case filed in Federal Court: Whether any of the counts in the Counterclaim arguably triggered Personal Injury Coverage under that liability policy. At the end of 27 pages, the Federal Court wrote that there is no Insurance Coverage under Westfield's policy. Download Etchison_v. Westfield Insurance Co. (N.D.W. Va. Case Nos. 5.05CV132, 5.05CV99 Opinion Filed September 29, 2006).pdf.
The next holding took only from the middle of page 27 to the top of page 29, because it followed from the holding of No Insurance Coverage. There, the Federal Court also granted Westfield's Motion for Summary Judgment on Mr. Etchison's claims against Westfield, the Construction Company's Liability Carrier -- including Mr. Etchison's requests for Bad Faith Damages "based on a third-party bad faith claim". (Page 2.)
This is the latest example of a Court declaring first that there is no Insurance Coverage available, and then declaring in a much shorter space and time after that, that as a result there cannot be any Claim for Bad Faith Damages. The holding in this case is once again "No Coverage, No Bad Faith".
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