Earlier this month, an appellate court issued an opinion in a Georgia car accident case requiring the court to determine if a bad-faith claim against an insurance company should be permitted to proceed toward trial. Ultimately, the court concluded that the plaintiff presented sufficient evidence of each element of the bad-faith claim, and the case should proceed toward trial.
The Facts of the Case
The case is somewhat confusing in that the plaintiff in the case against the insurance company was the estate of a motorist who had caused an accident that resulted in the motorist’s own death and injured several others. Several of those injured in the accident filed a personal injury case against the deceased motorist.
The insurance company of the deceased motorist failed to respond to communications from the accident victims’ attorney, seeking to settle the case within the insurance policy’s limits. As a result, the accident victims rescinded their offer to settle the case, and that case proceeded to trial, where a large verdict was entered in the plaintiffs’ favor.