Archive for the 'NJ - Attorney’s Fees' Category
This case addresses a wide array of New Jersey bad faith issues. The underlying facts involve disputed coverage and defense obligations in a suit against the insured based on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The insurer withdrew its defense based on trial court finding no coverage, which was later reversed on appeal
The insurer had been defending under a reservation of rights, but withdrew the defense when the trial court ruled no coverage was due. The underlying case proceeded. A $19 million judgment was entered on an unopposed summary judgment motion against the insured.
Subsequently, the appellate division reversed the trial court’s coverage ruling, and remanded to explore further factual issues before determining the coverage question.
The insured assigned it claims to the underlying plaintiffs, who counterclaimed for bad faith and failure to settle within policy limits, and who also intervened in the coverage dispute again alleging bad faith. Before reaching a jury in the declaratory judgment action, the court dismissed the bad faith claims “except for the count in its counterclaim that alleged [the insurer] acted in bad faith by failing to settle the underlying action at a time when it controlled that litigation and could have settled the claim within … policy limits.”
The jury found for the insured on coverage, and the court further awarded attorney’s fees under R. 4:42-9(a)(6). The total award exceeded $5 million.
On appeal, the court went through the relevant policy language and exclusions in great detail. Among other issues addressed, it found the verdict should have been reversed on the issue of what constituted “property damage,” with a single exception, that was also the sole actionable occurrence. Thus, the judgment was significantly undermined on appeal.
Bad faith issues
The court then addressed a variety of bad faith issues. This was triggered by the insurer’s late effort on the eve of trial to renew an attempt to dismiss the bad faith failure to settle claims for failure to bring forth expert testimony to support the failure to settle claim.
The insured “objected to the untimeliness of the motion and requested an adjournment if the court was inclined to dismiss for lack of an expert.” The judge found that there was no actionable bad faith claim under the “fairly debatable standard”, and that the insured had failed to negotiate a reasonable settlement once the defense was withdrawn.
“Alternatively, the judge found that any assessment of [the insurer’s] conduct in this complex case was beyond the ken of the average juror and dismissed the bad faith failure to settle claim because [the insured] had no expert. Noting the case management order required [the insured] to furnish an expert report nearly one year earlier, she denied any adjournment and dismissed the bad faith failure to settle counterclaim.”
The Appellate Division agreed an expert was necessary, but reversed the trial court’s ruling. It found that the motion in limine was functionally a summary judgment motion that was untimely and prejudicial.
The Court then addressed the nature of New Jersey bad faith claims, and the standards applicable in first and third party contexts.
Standards for failure to settle within policy limits
The failure to settle a third party claim within policy limits is governed by the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Rova Farms decision. Because the insurer controls the settlement, it has a fiduciary obligation to exercise good faith in considering settlement. The decision not to settle within policy limits “must be a thoroughly honest, intelligent and objective” decision.
“It must be a realistic one when tested by the necessarily assumed expertise of the company. This expertise must be applied, in a given case, to a consideration of all the factors bearing upon the advisability of a settlement for the protection of the insured. While the view of the carrier or its attorney as to liability is one important factor, a good faith evaluation requires more. It includes consideration of the anticipated range of a verdict, should it be adverse; the strengths and weaknesses of all of the evidence to be presented on either side so far as known; the history of the particular geographic area in cases of similar nature; and the relative appearance, persuasiveness, and likely appeal of the claimant, the insured, and the witnesses at trial.”
Expert needed on bad faith claim to assist jury
Rejecting a settlement by itself does not constitute bad faith. There must be “an assessment of the reasonableness of an insurer’s settlement negotiations in the underlying action” and this assessment “will likely hinge upon the credibility of fact witnesses, as well as expert testimony as to what went wrong on the settlement front and why.”
In this case, the factors were varied and complicated, and expert testimony was necessary to assist the jury in making a bad faith decision under Rova Farms and its progeny. Thus, the trial court was right on the issue that an expert was needed.
Some advice of how to handle late raised issues that will be allowed to go to trial, and the ability to sever bad faith claims
In reversing the dismissal, the appellate judges gave some practical advice to trial courts under these circumstances. Either the trial court have been adjourned to allow time to obtain the expert testimony and response, or the bad faith claim could have been severed and tried after the coverage case. The case was remanded for the trial judge to address the bad faith claim.
Some advice of using “fairly debatable” standard (Pickett) in failure to settle cases (Rova Farms)
The appellate judges then stated they would not address the issue of whether the trial judge’s fairly debatable ruling as a basis for dismissal was proper. The court then went on to discuss the interplay of Rova Farms and the Pickett fairly debatable standard at some length. It observed that the fairly debatable standard arose in the first party context, and that Rova Farms addressed failure to settle third party claims.
The Appellate Division had previously ruled that the fiduciary duty implicated in the third party failure to settle context does not exist in the first party context. However, another Appellate Division panel had ruled that the fairly debatable standard did apply in third party coverage cases (as differentiated from failure to settle cases). Thus, “[n]o reported New Jersey decision has addressed whether Pickett‘s ‘reasonably debatable’ standard applies to an insured’s bad faith refusal to settle claim.”
The Third Circuit has addressed the issue, and found that the Rova Farms’ standards, rather than the Pickett fairly debatable standards should control third party failure to settle claims.
“Whether [the insured] would be held liable for [the third-party’s] injuries was “fairly debatable,” but in the context of a third-party claim with a possibility of an excess verdict, Pickett supplies only part of the equation. The “fairly debatable” standard is analogous to the probability liability will attach in a third-party claim, but it does not consider the likelihood of an excess verdict.
A third-party claim that may exceed the policy limit creates a conflict of interest in that the limit can embolden the insurer to contest liability while the insured is indifferent to any settlement within the limit. This conflict is not implicated when the insured is a first-party beneficiary, where the claimant and the insurer are in an adversarial posture and the possibility of an excess verdict is absent.
Rova Farms, not Pickett, protects insureds who are relegated to the sidelines in third-party litigation from the danger that insurers will not internalize the full expected value of a claim due to a policy cap.”
The present panel chose to decide the issue, though (no pun intended), it acknowledged “the appeal of the Third Circuit’s rationale. An insurer who, while exclusively controlling the litigation, acts in bad faith and refuses to settle a third-party claim within its insured’s policy limits exposes the insured to personal liability. The situation therefore presents different concerns from those posed by a suit where the insurer acts in bad faith and wrongfully denies contractual benefits to the insured under its policy of insurance.”
Failure to negotiate a settlement after coverage denial may not preclude a later bad faith claim
Finally, the panel rejected the trial court’s finding that the insured’s failure to negotiate a settlement once coverage was denied precluded the possibility of a later bad faith claim.
The court looked generally to case law concerning insured’s conduct in settling, or not settling, cases where the insurer has declined involvement on the basis it does not believe coverage is due. Insured are not required as a matter of law to settle at their own expense. Rather, “under certain circumstances, insureds could do so without violating policy terms where there has been a breach by the insurer.”
In sum, the panel reversed the bad faith claim dismissal and remanded the matter to proceed on the bad faith claim.
Date of Decision: July 31, 2018
Penn National Insurance Co. v. Group C Communications, Inc., New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division, DOCKET NOS. A-0754-15T1 A-0808-15T1, 2018 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1833 (N.J. App. Div. July 31, 2018) (O’Connor, Messano and Vernoia, JJ.)
This is a bad faith case arising out of Superstorm Sandy damage to the insured’s home. Coverage for the full loss was denied, and breach of contract and bad faith claims followed. This opinion involves the insurer’s summary judgment motion on the bad faith claim. Judgment was entered on the bad faith claim for the insurer.
Bad Faith Standards
New Jersey recognizes bad faith claims for “both bad faith in denial of benefits and bad faith in delay of processing of claims.” A bad faith claim might exist where payment was intentionally and unreasonably delayed on an undisputed claim. The test is whether a claim is “fairly debatable”. If the insured cannot establish “as a matter of law a right to summary judgment on the substantive claim [e.g., the breach of the insurance contract]” there is no actionable bad faith claim. The plaintiff has to show the “absence of a reasonable basis for denying benefits of the policy and the defendant’s knowledge or reckless disregard of the lack of a reasonable basis for denying the claim.”
In the first party context, under New Jersey law: “Although a fairly debatable claim is a necessary condition to avoid liability for bad faith, it is not always a sufficient condition. Rather, we are satisfied that the appropriate inquiry is whether there is sufficient evidence from which reasonable minds could conclude that in the investigation, evaluation, and processing of the claim, the insurer acted unreasonably and either knew or was conscious of the fact that its conduct was unreasonable.” In this case, the “principal issue presented is whether Plaintiff has adduced factual evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that [the insurer] lacked a fairly debatable reason for denying the disputed portion of the claim. Because in this summary judgment motion [the insurer] has set forth the factual basis for its determinations of coverage and loss, and because Plaintiff has not come forward with evidence that Plaintiff’s entitlement to recover for these losses was so clear that it was not fairly debatable, Plaintiff will be unable to prove its bad faith claim in Count 2 and summary judgment will be granted….”
No bad faith conduct on the record in claims handling
Specifically, the court observed that the insured did not seek summary judgment on the breach of contract claim, and the court itself was not going to find it undisputed that the contract was breached. This alone would appear to be fatal to the insured’s opposition under the reasonably debatable standard. Further, the court observed that the insurer considered the opinions and advice of expert consultants in the claims handling process. The court also listed a variety of “plausible” steps the insurer took to adjust the claim.
No bad faith delay
The court further rejected the insured’s delay argument. It found the insurer promptly investigated the damages, retained experts and a licensed contractor to evaluate the claims, and shared its findings with the insured throughout the process. The insured failed to submit responsible estimates during the process with supporting documentation, and was unresponsive for many months at a time, included a delay in submitting a sworn statement in proof of loss.
Rhetorical assertions without support unsuccessful
The court addressed “Plaintiff’s rhetorical assertions that bad faith is demonstrable from assigning incompetent and inattentive claims adjusters who were ‘repeatedly told … to sit back and wait for the statute of limitations to run out in the hopes that the Plaintiff would miss the filing deadline’….” There was no support for this assertion and, to the contrary, the insured’s large loss director instructed the claim adjuster “to remind Plaintiff’s representatives in writing that the policy contained a two-year suit limitation condition” and the adjuster did so by writing a letter calling “attention to the suit limitation in advance of the approaching deadline.”
Alleged incompetent adjusting did not affect this claim
Early in the claims handling process an adjuster was criticized by his superior for not documenting the file. That adjuster was replaced. However, that this adjuster “temporarily failed to address the potential claim does not give rise to a material factual dispute, as it is undisputed that proper investigation was undertaken, results were shared and explained to Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s agent, and the claim file was put squarely on track as directed by the management. That there remains an area of disputed claims, as alleged in Count One, does not imply that those disputes were caused by [the insurer’s] deliberate indifference to a proper investigation and claims adjustment process.”
Attorney’s fees not recoverable
Date of Decision: March 29, 2018
Breitman v. National Surety Corp., Civil Action No. 14-7843 (JBS/AMD), 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52496 (D.N.J. Mar. 29, 2018) (Simandle, J.)
This appeal stems from an underlying UIM action that involved a 2012 automobile accident. The insured settled with the underinsured-tortfeasor for $15,000 and filed a UIM claim with the insurer. After settlement negotiations failed, the insured filed suit against the insurer, and each party then filed an offer of judgment. The insurer offered $30,000 and the insured’s offer of judgment amounted to $85,000. Policy limits were $100,000.
The jury ultimately returned a verdict for $375,000. The trial court entered judgment on the verdict for $360,000 plus interest after subtracting the initial $15,000 settlement without prejudice to either party’s right to file a post-judgment motion for molding or other relief. The insurer filed a motion to mold the verdict to the policy limits. The insured filed a motion to amend the complaint to add a bad faith claim and for counsel fees.
The trial court denied the insured’s motion to amend, but allowed her to file a new complaint asserting a bad faith claim. As to the insurer’s motion to mold to the $100,000 policy limit, the trial court stated that it had discretion not to mold the verdict because the insurer engaged in “scorched earth” settlement practices. Lastly, the trial court awarded the insured counsel fees on the non-molded verdict, per the offer of judgment rule.
On appeal, the Appellate Division ruled that the trial court erred in declining to mold the verdict. The Court primarily relied upon case law that commands molding the verdict, because “UIM cases are first-party contract claims against insurers, but they are generally tried as if they were third-party tort actions with the insurer standing in for the uninsured or underinsured tortfeasor . . . . Thus, courts have appropriately recognized the need to mold jury verdicts in these cases to reflect the rights and duties of the parties under the insurance policy.”
The Appellate Division added that the trial court erred in molding the verdict based upon the insurer’s alleged bad faith, when the issue of bad faith had never been pleaded or adjudicated. It rejected the idea of deciding the bad faith issue without giving both parties the opportunity to litigate the issue.
The Appellate Division did affirm the insured’s right to counsel fees under the offer of judgment rule, however, the sum awarded was in error because the fee application submitted to the trial court was deficient. The Appellate Division stated that “a fee application must ‘be supported by an affidavit of services addressing the factors enumerated by RPC 1.5(a)’ and must include a specific enumeration of the services performed and the hours spent.”
The Appellate Division remanded the action back to the trial court for the various reasons articulated.
Date of Decision: December 14, 2017
Seamon v. State Farm Ins. Co., DOCKET NO. A-0293-16T3, 2017 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 3069 (New Jersey Appellate Division Dec. 14, 2017) (Reisner and Gilson, JJ.)
We originally posted a summary of the New Jersey Federal District Court’s August 2017 opinion in Legends Management Co. v. Affiliated Insurance, concerning various discovery issues. Since that time, two more closely related discovery opinions have issued, as well as an opinion concerning severance and stay of the bad faith claim.
Of note in the third discovery opinion is the Court’s ruling that the insurer, which brought a claim under the Insurance Fraud Act and could be entitled to attorneys fees and costs, did not have to produce its attorney invoices until that claim had been determined on the merits. Summaries of the three cases can be found here.
The insured received medical treatment from several providers after sustaining injuries in a May 2013 auto accident. The policy provided up to $15,000 in PIP benefits per accident. The insurer denied a request for an $8,527.07 payment to Hackensack Surgery Center (“HSC”), as subrogee of the insured, because it determined that the treatment was not medically necessary. HSC then filed a demand for arbitration.
Prior to the arbitration hearing, the insurer advised that only a balance of $2,132.74 remained in available PIP benefits due to prior payments totaling $12,867.26. During the pendency of HSC’s claim, Thermocare Plus, LLC (“Thermocare”), another medical provider of the insured, utilized the insurer’s internal appeals process to seek a reversal of insurer’s earlier denial of its bill totaling $2,032.74. On August 21, 2015, the insurer advised Thermocare that its previous denial was overturned, and that it would process Thermocare’s bill.
On the same day, the insurer received the HSC arbitration award that the HSC treatment was medically necessary, and awarded $8,438.58, plus interest, attorney’s fees, and costs to HSC. However, the arbitration panel stated that the award “was subject to ‘the policy limits for medical payments, still available to [HSC] at the time of the award.’”
Seven days later, the insured paid Thermocare $2,032.74. The insurer then complied with the arbitration award, and processed a payment of $100 to HSC, which reflected the amount of remaining PIP benefits. HSC then filed an order to show cause, arguing that its payment had priority. HSC sought an additional payment of $2,036.99 and attorney’s fees and costs.
The trial judge ordered the insurer to pay HSC an additional $2,036.99, which represented the amount remaining on the arbitration award. The judge reasoned that the insurer did not “engage[] in any sort of bad faith. . .”, but the insurer’s payment decisions did not achieve an equitable outcome. The trial judge denied HSC’s request for attorney’s fees.
On appeal, the insurer argued that the trial judge’s decision ran counter to existing state law because it had already exhausted the PIP policy limits. Furthermore, the insurer argued that it had 35 days to challenge the arbitration award, and thus was under no obligation to comply with the award because it already approved Thermocare’s payment.
In articulating the collateral source rule, which governs the payment of PIP benefits under New Jersey law, the Appellate Division stated that the insurer is required “to pay PIP benefits immediately upon [a] determination that the loss is due and owing, without consideration that the loss may also be covered by another source. . . .”
The Appellate Division held that HSC is entitled to the additional $2,036.99 payment, because HSC’s bill predated Thermocare’s; HSC rendered services prior to Thermocare; the insurer received HSC’s bill prior to Thermocare’s; and because Thermocare’s bill remained unpaid as of the date of the arbitration award. Citing the “broad discretion” given to trial judges when deciding whether to award attorney’s fees, and finding no abuse of discretion, the Appellate Division declined to overrule the judge’s decision to deny HSC its requested attorney’s fees and costs.
Date of Decision: September 5, 2017
Hackensack Surgery Ctr. V. Allstate Ins. Co., No. A-3896-15T3, 2017 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2200 (N.J. App. Div. Sept. 5, 2017) (Reisner and Sumners, JJ.)
A default was taken against the insured, who hired his own counsel to defend the matter, without notice to the insurer. The court found this a breach of the insured’s duty. However, once put on notice of the suit and default, the insurer took prompt action to vacate the default and settle the matter.
Among other things, the insured sued for bad faith on the basis of the insurer’s refusal to reimburse private counsel’s legal fees. The court granted summary judgment, as the insurer never denied coverage, there was no reason to hire private counsel had the insured put the insurer on notice, and there was no permission from the insurer to hire that counsel as required by the policy.
Date of Decision: December 7, 2016
Kim v. Leading Ins. Group & Leading Ins. Servs., No. A-5161-14T1, 2016 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2599 (App.Div. Dec. 7, 2016) (Reisner and Sumners, JJ.) (Unpublished)
In Breitman v. National Surety Corporation, the court was faced with the question of whether an insured could request attorney’s fees as part of consequential damages to a claim of bad faith.
The case arose out of a Hurricane Sandy coverage dispute in which the insurer originally denied the insured’s claim for loss and damage to the insured’s property caused by flood, not wind, as a result of Hurricane Sandy. The insured alleged that the insurer “conducted an improper adjustment, wrongfully denied his claim, and delayed payment.” The insured filed suit and set forth claims for breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing/bad faith, and violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The insurer moved to strike the request for attorney’s fees from the bad faith claim.
In refusing to strike the insured’s request for attorney’s fees as part of his claim for breach of the duty of good faith, the court noted that under New Jersey law, “attorney’s fees are recoverable where provided for under a court rule or statute, pursuant to a contract, or where counsel feels are a traditional element of damages in a particular cause of action.” The court acknowledged that New Jersey law does not allow for an insured to recover attorney’s fees in a direct suit against his insurer for coverage, but explained that fees may be recoverable on a bad faith claim because “consequential economic damages are part of the damages award in a cause of action for bad faith.”
While the insurer urged the court to hold otherwise, the court stated that it was not necessary to conclusively decide this issue at such an early stage in the litigation. As the insured was able to plausibly show that fees may be part of the consequential damages on a claim of bad faith, the court permitted the request to remain, and reasoned that the issue of damages would be revisited if the insured later proved his claim against the insurer.
Date of Decision: September 29, 2015
Breitman v. Nat’l Sur. Corp., CIVIL ACTION NO. 14-7843, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130744 (D.N.J. September 29, 2015) (Simandle, J.)
In Gilliam v. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the insureds brought claims for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and bad faith denial of insurance benefits after the insureds’ home suffered damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
The insureds alleged that the insurer “improperly adjusted the claims” and “wrongfully denied at least a portion of the claim without adequate investigation.” The insureds further claim that they were underpaid for damages caused by Hurricane Sandy, and also alleged that the insurer “failed to affirm or deny coverage for their losses within a reasonable time period.”
The insurer sought to dismiss the breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim “on the ground that the claim is subsumed within [the insureds’] bad faith claim set forth in the third count of the complaint.”
The District Court stated that the New Jersey Supreme Court “has recognized a cause of action for, and established the applicable standard governing, an insurance company’s bad faith refusal to pay a claim pursuant to a policy of insurance.” In a case in which the insured brought an action against its insurance carrier, claiming breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing for failing to timely pay the insured’s claim, the New Jersey Supreme Court had found that the bad faith cause of action rested upon the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, which is “to be implied in every contract.”
Thus, the present District Court decision found that any analysis relevant to the determination of the insureds’ claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing would be implicitly incorporated into the bad faith cause of action, and it dismissed this claim.
The District Court next addressed whether “punitive damages may be assessed against an insurance carrier for the allegedly wrongful withholding of insurance benefits.” In making this determination, the Court pointed to New Jersey case law for the proposition that punitive damage awards are prohibited in contract actions absent a special relationship between the parties. This “special relationship” exception has been narrowed to the extent that “an insurer’s task of determining whether the insurance policy provided coverage of an accident cannot be deemed to give rise to … a [fiduciary] duty on the part of the insurer.”
Rather, “[t]he parties, in this respect, are merely dealing with one another as they would in a normal contractual situation. They are not acting as principal and agent.”
In the present case, the insureds failed to plead facts that would show such egregious, intolerable, or outrageous conduct that would be sufficient to support an award of punitive damages. Further, the case was a first party insurance claim, which “cannot support a finding of a fiduciary relationship sufficient to invoke the special relationship exception to the general rule prohibiting punitive damage awards in actions of this form.”
Thus, there was no more than a breach of contract action, which lacked “in both aggravated circumstances and facts indicative of a fiduciary, or agent-principal, relationship between the parties,” and the Court dismissed the claim for punitive damages.
The Court also rejected the insureds’ claim for attorney’s fees because the matter involved a first party claim for which counsel fees may not be recovered.
Date of Decision: September 25, 2014
Gilliam v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., CIVIL NO. 14-cv-00361, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184510 (D.N.J. September 25, 2014) (Sheridan, J.)
The insureds brought claims for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and bad faith denial of insurance benefits after the insureds’ home suffered damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
The insureds alleged that the insurer “improperly denied at least a portion of the claim without adequate investigation” and they claimed to have been “underpaid to date for the damages sustained as a result of Hurricane Sandy.” The insureds further argued that the insurer “failed to affirm or deny coverage for their losses within a reasonable time period.”
The insurer moved to have the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing count dismissed, along with the insureds’ demands for punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
The insurer sought to dismiss the breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claim “on the ground that the claim is subsumed within [the insureds’] bad faith claim set forth in the third count of the complaint.”
The District Court stated that the New Jersey Supreme Court “has recognized a cause of action for, and established the applicable standard governing, an insurance company’s bad faith refusal to pay a claim pursuant to a policy of insurance.” In a case in which the insured brought an action against its insurance carrier, claiming breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing for failing to timely pay the insured’s claim, the New Jersey Supreme Court had found that the bad faith cause of action rested upon the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, which is “to be implied in every contract.”
Thus, the present District Court decision found that any analysis relevant to the determination of the insureds’ claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing would be implicitly incorporated into the bad faith cause of action, and it dismissed this claim.
The District Court next addressed whether “punitive damages may be assessed against an insurance carrier for the allegedly wrongful withholding of insurance benefits.” In making this determination, the Court pointed to New Jersey case law for the proposition that punitive damage awards are prohibited in contract actions absent a special relationship between the parties.
This “special relationship” exception has been narrowed to the extent that “an insurer’s task of determining whether the insurance policy provided coverage of an accident cannot be deemed to give rise to … a [fiduciary] duty on the part of the insurer.” Rather, “[t]he parties, in this respect, are merely dealing with one another as they would in a normal contractual situation. They are not acting as principal and agent.”
In the present case, the insureds failed to plead facts that would show such egregious, intolerable, or outrageous conduct that would be sufficient to support an award of punitive damages. Further, the case was a first party insurance claim, which “cannot support a finding of a fiduciary relationship sufficient to invoke the special relationship exception to the general rule prohibiting punitive damage awards in actions of this form.”
Thus, there was no more than a breach of contract action, which lacked “in both aggravated circumstances and facts indicative of a fiduciary, or agent-principal, relationship between the parties,” and the Court dismissed the claim for punitive damages.
It also rejected the insureds’ claim for attorney’s fees because the matter involved a first party claim for which counsel fees may not be recovered.
Date of Decision: September 26, 2014
Torres v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., CIVIL NO. 13-CV-06051, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184534 (D.N.J. September 26, 2014) (Sheridan, J.)
In 213-15 76th Street Condominium Association v. Scottsdale Insurance Company, the insured sought attorney’s fees for a first party claim against its insurer. Attorneys’ fees are only permitted in such circumstances, if the insured pleads a claim for bad faith. However, where the claim is only for breach of the insurance contract, attorney’s fee awards are prohibited. In this case, the plaintiff did not set out a bad faith claim, but at most asserted that future discovery may elucidate such a claim exists. Thus, there was no basis for attorney’s fees, though the court dismissed the attorney’s fee claim without prejudice.
Date of Decision: July 31, 2015
