Thursday, August 1, 2013

Bad Faith Decision Out of Blair County

Senior Judge Charles Brown, Jr. recently issued a bad faith decision in the Blair County case of Rhodes v. USAA Cas. Ins. Co., No. 2004 GN 2279 (C.P. Blair Co. July 18, 2013 Brown), that had gone up and down the appellate ladder before this decision.

Central issues in the case involved whether the time the carrier took to evaluate and settle the claim was unreasonable and whether the carrier had a reasonable basis for defending the claim.

After conducting an extensive review of the facts presented as applied against the current status of bad faith law, the court found that the carrier had acted reasonably.  In so ruling, the court noted that there were times that the carrier was without the information necessary to complete its full evaluation.  The court also noted that "[d]elays in this case were caused by the reasonable pace of the litigation."

As such, the court entered a verdict in favor of the carrier in this non-jury case.

Anyone desiring a copy of this case to review may click this LINK.

I send thanks to Attorney Patricia Monahan of the Pittsburgh office of Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin, as well as David Cole, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, for providing me with a copy of this case.

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