In Robinson v. Charter Oak Fire Ins. Co., No. 20-cv-1534-RMR-MEH, 2022 WL 2753524 (D. Colo. May 26, 2022), the Court applied Colorado law to first-party bad faith claims. So far as bad faith cases are concerned, the issues in this case under Colorado law are determined in the same way as most if not all other American jurisdictions:
Insurance bad faith claims by their nature present questions of fact unsuitable for resolution on summary judgment except in limited circumstances. Therefore, whether an insurer's conduct was reasonable under the circumstances is ordinarily a question of fact for the jury.
Robinson, 2022 WL 2753524, at *2. And so it was in this case.
There were two claims for bad faith at issue here. One was for alleged Colorado statutory bad faith, which put the reasonableness of the carrier's conduct at issue in this case. Robinson, 2022 WL 2753524, at *2. The other bad faith claim was for alleged Colorado common law bad faith, which also put reasonableness at issue so far as the carrier's conduct is concerned here. Robinson, 2022 WL 2753524, at *3.
Accordingly, the Court in this case denied the carrier's motion for summary judgment on both counts of first-party bad faith.
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