Thursday, April 14, 2022

Plaintiff's UM/UIM Bad Faith Claim Based on Alleged Low Ball Offer Dismissed


In the case of Robinson v. Geico, No. 21-CV-05059 (E.D. Pa. March 4, 2022 Kenney, J.), the court denied a Plaintiff’s Motion to Amend a breach of contract Complaint to add a bad faith claim.

The Plaintiff is attempting to amend the Complaint to add a claim of bad faith by the carrier in its evaluation and alleged submission of a low ball settlement offer.

The court noted that the proposed Amended Complaint that was attached to the Motion to Amend only contained broad conclusory allegations related to an alleged bad faith claim and was devoid of any facts as to where any medical records would establish at least $50,000.00 worth of damages in the information that had been provided to defense counsel in support of the Plaintiff’s settlement demand in that amount.

As such, the court found that the proposed Amended Complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted for bad faith and, as such, the Motion to Amend was denied as futile.

In so ruling, Judge Kenney noted that the proposition that the failure to immediately concede to a demand for the policy limits cannot, without more, amount to bad faith on the part of an automobile insurance carrier.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.  The Court's Order can be viewed HERE.

In a related decision in the same matter issued by the court five days after this one, the Court sua sponte dismissed the Plaintiff's UM/UIM case where the record confirmed that the subject policy only had $50,000 in limits, which amount of potential damages was less than the $75,000 amount necessary for federal court subject matter jurisdiction.  Click HERE to see that Opinion, and HERE to see the Court's companion Order.

I send thanks to Attorney Lee Applebaum, the writer of the excellent Pennsylvania and New Jersey Insurance Bad Faith Case Law blog and member of the Fineman Krekstein & Harris law firm in Philadelphia, for bringing this case to my attention.


Photo by Karolina Grabowska on www.pexels.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.