Friday, December 19, 2014

Graciano v. Mercury Ins. Co. (Cal. Ct. App. - Nov. 12, 2104)

I agree with the Court of Appeal.  There are plenty of cases in which an insurance company acts in bad faith by failing to timely accept a policy limits demand.  The trial court thought that this was one of them.

But it's not.  The insurance company could have perhaps gotten its act together a little better and perhaps a little faster.  But it acted, in my view, pretty darn reasonably.  Plaintiff's (understandable) effort to set up a bad faith claim worked below.  But even though the insurer wasn't perfect, it was not properly found liable for bad faith.

Check out the facts and see if you agree with me and the Court of Appeal or with the trial court.