In Auto-Owners Ins. Co. v. Bolden, as Personal Representative, etc., and Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc., d/b/a Vertical Lend ISAOA/ATIMA, No. 9:16-cv-2961-DCN, 2017 WL 3923356 (D.S.C. September 7, 2017), the Court addressed several issues.
Chief among the important facts for our purposes was that, among other things, a homeowner died in a fire at her home while her home was being foreclosed. The homeowner's estate made a claim for coverage. The homeowners carrier did not pay the policy proceeds to the policyholder's estate.
Instead, the homeowners carrier paid part of the claim to the estate, and then proffered a check for the balance of the claim naming both the estate and the mortgagee as joint payees. The estate refused the second check basically on the ground that the policyholder owned the property at the time of the fire loss and so her estate should be the sole payee now.
The homeowners carrier then filed a lawsuit claiming the right to an interpleader. The Estate filed counterclaims in the carrier's lawsuit, for breach of contract and bad faith. The homeowners carrier requested that the Estate's claims be dismissed partly because it, the carrier, had filed a motion for interpleader and also because, the carrier argued, the bad faith claims in essence died with the homeowner.
In this procedural posture, the Court allowed the Estate to pursue the homeowner's contract and bad faith claims, denied the carrier's motion to dismiss those claims, and refused interpleader in this case.
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