BAD FAITH PLAUSIBLE WHERE INSURER DENIED COVERAGE 11 DAYS AFTER CLAIM MADE SOLELY BASED ON A POLICY EXCLUSION IT KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN HAD BEEN VOIDED BY PENNSYLVANIA’S SUPREME COURT (Philadelphia Federal)
The insurer denied a UIM claim 11 days after it was submitted. Denial was based solely on the policy’s household exclusion. Many months earlier, however, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court had generally voided the household exclusion’s application under Pennsylvania law in similar circumstances. Gallagher v. GEICO Indemnity Co. Thus, the exclusion was an invalid basis to deny coverage.
The insured brought breach of contract and bad faith claims, and the carrier moved to dismiss the bad faith claim for inadequate pleading. The court denied the motion, and found a plausible bad faith claim stated.
First, the court found that the insurer was fully on notice that the household exclusion was invalid in Pennsylvania in these circumstances. Even if the carrier somehow was otherwise unaware of the case, the insured’s counsel brought it to the carrier’s attention in making the claim for coverage. Thus, the household exclusion was a plainly invalid basis to deny coverage, but the carrier denied coverage anyway.
The insurer attempted to argue the Supreme Court’s Gallagher decision only applied to Gallagher’s unique facts. Magistrate Judge Wells found this argument patently incorrect on the face of the Gallagher opinion itself.
Second, the court reasonably inferred from the facts pleaded that the carrier did nothing to investigate the claim before denying coverage. Specifically, the court inferred that the defendant carrier did not even know what the other insurers would be paying the insured toward her injuries for purposes of evaluating its own potential share due to the insured. Moreover, she found the defendant insurer made no effort to evaluate the case itself. Thus, at the time it denied the claim, the carrier could not have known if the insured was fairly compensated or was due further payment.
The facts pleaded supporting these conclusions are that the carrier did not require a medical examination, nor did it produce any contrary medical documents; that it denied the claim in only 11 days; and the insured had not even settled yet with the other insurers at the time the claim was denied.
In sum, the court stated the claim denial “was based solely upon a patently false statement of Pennsylvania law, hence, it is plausible that a jury could find [the denial] decision frivolous and issued in bad faith. …. Furthermore, since it can be inferred that [it] made no effort to value the case, it is plausible that [the insurer] violated its duty of good faith and to deal fairly with Plaintiff, its insured.”
