Bad Faith Blog

Injured logger, as an assignee of claims by a timber lessee and land owner, brought an action against his employer’s liability insurer to recover a consent judgment for the $1M policy limits. After the trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the logger, the employer’s insurer appealed. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia found the consent judgment was not binding on the insurer because it was not a party to the underlying suit and the settlement and assignment were void for fraud and collusion.

The Eleventh Circuit considered whether the insurer was bound by a settlement agreement between a homeowner’s association insured and a homeowner, settling the homeowner’s claim for attorneys’ fees by stipulating the homeowner would not enforce the resulting consent judgment against the homeowner’s association. The Eleventh Circuit found these Florida Coblentz Agreements unenforceable against insurers if tainted with fraud or collusion. There was substantial evidence to support the district court’s bench trial determination the negotiations were conducted in bad faith. Therefore, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s Judgment that the settlement agreement could not be enforced against the insurer.