Bad Faith Blog

Summary: The insured, Morlan Enterprises (Morlan), brought an action against Owners Insurance Company (Owners) alleging bad faith and a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices Act (UTPA). In response, Owners sought a writ of prohibition seeking to prevent the Circuit Court from exercising jurisdiction over Owners, from applying West Virginia substantive law rather than Ohio law to an insurance coverage dispute, from allowing Morlan to proceed on its bad faith claim, and from prohibiting presentation of certain evidence. The majority of theSupreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia held in three opinions that Owners had not established the necessary elements for the granting of a writ and, therefore, denied the requested writ of prohibition.