"The central issue with regard to Plaintiff’s bad faith claims is the reasonableness of Defendant’s conduct." So said the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in an Underinsured Motorist Case with Bad Faith Claims in Chinnock v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., No. 20-cv-00918-RM-NYW, 2022 WL 1469545, at *5 (D. Colo. May 10, 2022).
The same observation was made much earlier, in case law and in 2 DENNIS J. WALL, LITIGATION AND PREVENTION OF INSURER BAD FAITH, § 9:3, The Question of Bad Faith (West Publishing Co. 3d Edition, 2022 Supplements forthcoming). Since at least 1991, the clear majority of courts follow the rule of reason in assessing first-party insurer bad faith liability:
CITING TO [AN EARLIER VERSION OF] THIS SECTION, a summary judgment for the carrier in a first-party bad faith case was affirmed in Cruz v. American United Ins. Co.[,580 So. 2d 311, 312 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991):]
The legal standard governing an insurer's settlement conduct is one of reasonableness. D. Wall, Litigation and Prevention of Insurer Bad Faith § 9.03 (1985).
This is the clear majority view of the question.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2022 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
Comments