After a seven day jury trial in this insurance bad faith case, the jury took just over 2 hours to decide in favor of our insurance company client. Plaintiff alleged that the insurance company had a pattern and practice of concealing med-pay coverage from persons injured on property owned by the insurance company’s insureds. Plaintiff was injured when she slipped and fell on the subject property. During the course of the underlying case, the adjuster had failed to realize that the plaintiff was eligible for the med-pay coverage and did not offer her the coverage. In discovery during the litigation of the underlying case, the staff counsel for the insurance company failed to identify the med-pay coverage in responding to interrogatories. The mistake was discovered during the defense of the underlying case and the med-pay was paid immediately, but by that time, plaintiff had filed this bad faith case. Our client defended the suit for bad faith based upon mistakes made by the adjuster and attorneys and that the mistakes did not rise to the level of bad faith and that there was no evidence of a pattern and practice. The jury agreed.
January 23, 2018