Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Nationwide Has An Order to Abide

In one of the latest decisions handed down in the Commonwealth in the context of insurance bad faith litigation, Judge Jeffrey Sprecher of the Berks County Court of Common Pleas has doled out an $18 million dollar award against Nationwide Mutual Insurance along with an award of $3 million in attorney's fees in the case of Berg v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance, No. 98-813-Civil (Berks Co. June 12, 2014 Sprecher, J.).

The underlying allegations by the Plaintiffs were that the carrier, in an attempt to avoid paying replacement costs, allegedly knowingly returned a vehicle to the Plaintiffs with structural issues despite four months of repairs and then paid its defense counsel millions of dollars to allegedly drag out the litigation of the disputed insurance claim.

In his detailed Opinion, Judge Sprecher reviewed the current status of Pennsylvania insurance bad faith law as well as the applicable standard for the award of attorney's fees in this context.

Anyone wishing to review Judge Sprecher's Opinion may click this LINK.

I sent thanks to Attorney Tim Lenahan of the Scranton law firm of Lenahan & Dempsey, and Attorney Paul Oven of the Moosic, PA office of the firm of Dougherty, Leventhal & Price for bringing this case to my attention.

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