An underinsured motorist (UIM) policyholder's bad faith claims were not barred by claim preclusion, i.e., by res judicata or estoppel, where the bad faith claims were based on the UIM carrier's alleged conduct after the policyholder had prevailed in arbitration on her claim for the full UIM policy limits. She filed suit to enforce the arbitration award and obtained a judgment in her favor, following which the carrier paid the UIM policy limits and the policyholder dismissed her case. Searcy v. Endurance Ins. Co., 243 F. Supp. 3d 1146 (D. Nev. 2017).
The UIM carrier defended its conduct occurring after the policyholder filed suit to enforce the arbitration award and, in this case, after the judgment confirmed the arbitration award, on the ground that the policyholder's bad faith claims should have been brought before the conduct occurred, in basic and simple terms. The District Judge disagreed. And so, in the end, yet another gamble in Nevada did not pay off.
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