Bad Faith Blog

Summary: Stefanie Hardacre struck and injured motorcyclist Grand Nelson. A third vehicle was also involved, but that driver’s insurer paid Nelson the policy limits of $100,000. Hardacre’s insurer, Progressive, determined that Hardacre was not at fault. Progressive denied Nelson’s claim; it had closed its investigation file three days after acknowledging receipt.

Summary: Bryan Blann and Garry Reed were involved in a double fatality motor vehicle accident. Reed was insured by American Standard Insurance with whom Blann’s widow, attempted to settle after the accident. When that failed, she took a judgment against Reed’s estate for over $2.5 million while agreeing not to execute judgment against the estate which assigned to Blann any rights it had against the carrier. Blann filed suit to seek a recovery of the full amount of the judgment from American Standard for negligent and bad faith handling of the insurance claim. The case went to trial before Kansas U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia who entered judgment for $2.536 million. After concluding that the company breached its duties to its insured and its claims handling was negligent and/or in bad faith, Blann was awarded the amount of the underlying judgment, pre-judgment interest, and an award of attorney’s fees to be fixed after further hearings.