BURDENS OF PROOF OF BAD FAITH--WHO HAS THE BURDENS?

Burdens of proof -- Who Has The Burdens is the title of § 3:95 in 1 DENNIS J. WALL, LITIGATION AND PREVENTION OF INSURER BAD FAITH (West Publishing Co. 3d Edition, 2022 Supplements in process).  The burdens of proof in a bad-faith cause of action under Rhode Island law are recognized, although in apparent dicta, in Shannahan v. R.I. Interlocal Risk Mgmt. Trust, 269 A.3d 737, 740 (R.I. 2022).

In that case, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island emphasized that the plaintiff in a bad-faith action must demonstrate the absence of a reasonable basis for denying the claim, or an intentional, reckless failure to properly investigate the claim.   That particular case involved an otherwise unspecified claim "in which plaintiffs had asserted that defendant wrongfully and in bad faith denied plaintiffs' underlying third-party insurance claims[.]"

This apparently was dicta because the Supreme Court had already declared that the plaintiffs were not the defendant's "insureds" and that they were not assignees of any insureds, either, so that they had no standing to pursue a bad-faith cause of action against that carrier.

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