In First Utd. Pentecostal Church v. Church Mut. Ins. Co., 119 F.4th 417, 427 (5th Cir. 2024), a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a trial judge’s holding which accepted as “credible” an expert’s adjustment to an Xactimate estimate of repair damage. The panel said that this holding was not clearly error.
The trial judge sat in a federal court in Louisiana. Despite this holding, the District Court held that the insurance company’s delay in paying hurricane damage claims was arbitrary or capricious or without probable cause, and therefore actionable as bad faith under Louisiana law.
The Fifth Circuit panel was composed of two Louisiana lawyers and one Texas lawyer. The Fifth Circuit panel’s opinion was written by the Texas lawyer in this appeal from Louisiana. The Fifth Circuit panel reversed the Louisiana District Judge and substituted its own judgment to the contrary. Contrary to what the trial judge held in this regard, the Texas judge led the Fifth Circuit panel into a discussion of Louisiana insurance bad faith law and held that the record conduct of the carrier in question did not fall to the level of being arbitrary or capricious or without probable cause under Louisiana law.
Finding facts and legal holdings. These can be hard things to deal with, apparently.
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