Bad Faith Blog

Toby Thornton filed a lawsuit against his employer’s insurer, American Interstate Insurance, alleging common law bad faith for denying his claim for permanent and total disability (PTD) and his request for partial commutation of benefits. The district court found that American Interstate acted in bad faith as a matter of law by opposing Thornton’s workers’ compensation claims. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Iowa agreed American Interstate had no basis to challenge Thornton’s PTD status and affirmed summary judgment on that issue. However, the Court held that the district court improperly found the insurer acted in bad faith as a matter of law on the commutation issue. Thus, the Court reversed part of the judgment and the damages awards and remanded the case for a new trial on the remaining bad-faith claims.

Summary: Bruhn Farms Joint Venture (“Bruhn”) suffered significant hail damage to crops. Bruhn notified the insurer of the hail damage. After a month of no action, Bruhn requested and received approval to harvest the crops. By the time insurer sent adjusters to the farm, additional inclement weather had occurred. The adjusters, after spending minimal amount of time in the fields, determined the payable loss and notified Bruhn. Bruhn disagreed with the adjusted loss and refused to sign the proof of loss. The insurer sent payment for the loss without further discussion with Bruhn. Bruhn contacted his insurance agent to negotiate with the insurer. Allegedly both parties agreed to re-calculate the loss using the historical yields. The insurer notified Bruhn’s agent it was willing to pay additional funds on Bruhn’s claim. However, when Bruhn’s agent attempted to accept, the insurer alleged the claim was properly adjusted and paid.

Summary: The insured made significant improvements to its building, thereby increasing building’s value. Insurer made initial payments to insured under building, personal property and business income coverages. After substantial negotiations between insurer and insured’s counsel, insured filed breach of contract action against insurer. Insured won at trial, and insurer paid the judgment and interest and obtained a satisfaction of judgment.

Summary: Spencer, a truck driver employed by Annett Holdings, was injured on the job. He filed suit against Annett making several bad faith claims, including failure to pay medical bills, delaying necessary medical care, and delaying healing period benefits. The district court dismissed the action for failing to present a submissible case, which the 8th Circuit affirmed.

Summary: A severe flood struck Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008, damaging the insured’s manufacturing facility and impacting its business operations, leading to claims of property damages exceeding $35 million and business interruption losses exceeding $26 million. Two insurers equally shared responsibility for payment of claims under the same insurance policy. They paid only $20 million, contending the policy’s flood sublimits had been reached. The insured then filed a first-party claim for breach of contract and bad faith. After the insured rested its case at trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa directed a verdict against the insured on the bad faith claim. Then after the insurers rested their case, they won a directed verdict on the breach of contract claim. The Eighth Circuit affirmed.