A Good-Faith Attempt to Limit Unwarranted Bad-Faith Liability in Georgia

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Bryan Lutz, Tiffany Powers, and Kyle Wallace | Alston & Bird | March 21, 2019

A victory for insurers in Georgia’s Supreme Court clarifies state law on liability for failing to settle a claim. Our Insurance Litigation & Regulatory Team offers three key holdings that will limit an insurer’s potential exposure.

  • The injured party must present a valid offer
  • Whether a claimant has made a valid offer to settle is a legal question
  • Insurers may exhaust the policy limits by settling one of multiple claims

In a recent victory for insurers by Alston & Bird’s insurance team before the Georgia Supreme Court, the court issued an opinion in First Acceptance Insurance Co. of Georgia v. Hughes clarifying longstanding (and much debated) Georgia law governing an insurer’s liability for failing to settle a claim within the policy limits. The court held that a claimant’s ambiguous demand letter did not create a duty for the insurer to settle a claim, shedding light on three key aspects of Georgia law:

  • Insurers have no duty to settle a claim until they receive a valid offer to settle.
  • Demand letters are construed by the court with the principles of general contract construction, with ambiguous terms to be construed against the drafter.
  • Insurers have no duty to settle one of multiple claims when there is no time-limited demand and the claimant has expressed a willingness to engage in a joint settlement conference.

Georgia Law on Liability for Bad-Faith Failure to Settle Claims Against an Insured

The Georgia Supreme Court recently stepped in to clarify Georgia’s law governing an insurer’s liability for failing to settle a claim within the policy limits. Decades ago, the Georgia Supreme Court announced a rule in Southern General Insurance Co. v. Holtthat if an insurer acts in bad faith by refusing to settle a claim for an amount within the policy limits, it may be liable for the full amount of any judgment against the insured. The reason for the rule was simple: to encourage insurers to settle to avoid liability to their insured for judgment amounts exceeding the insurance coverage rather than take a chance at a trial where the insurer will face the same policy-limits maximum exposure but will possibly save money if the insured is found not liable.

In the 27 years following Holt, however, the rule has been weaponized. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have recognized that when the person at fault in a catastrophic accident may be rendered insolvent by a massive judgment, the insurer is often the only possible source to collect from. In these instances, plaintiffs’ attorneys have every incentive to break through the contractual limits of the insurance policy and to seek collection of the entire judgment from the insurer. Holt provided an inlet with its bright-line rule. As a result, rather than promoting settlement, the Holt rule has often been used as a trap to ensnare unwary insurers through the use of strategic “set-up” demands to create bad-faith liability even when the claimant never truly intends to settle their claim for an amount within the policy limits. Set-up tactics have included demand letters that require hand delivery of settlement payments within an unrealistic timeframe and vague and confusing demands that may not fully release all claims. These tactics have become so widespread that plaintiffs’ attorneys have actually created continuing legal education seminars to instruct on their use.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s Opinion in Hughes

Although the Georgia legislature took action to curb the abusive tactic of sending time-limited demands,[1] the Georgia Supreme Court recognized in Hughes that the law governing bad-faith liability needed further reform. In Hughes, the insured caused a car accident that seriously injured multiple parties and resulted in the insured’s death. The insurer, recognizing the $50,000 policy limit would quickly be exhausted, attempted to schedule a joint settlement conference with all injured parties. One of the injured parties (on her own behalf and her minor child’s) sent two letters to the insurer on the same day: (1) a letter expressing interest in a joint settlement conference and alternatively offering a limited release that would carve out claims for uninsured motorist coverage upon payment of the policy limits and receipt of coverage information; and (2) a letter requesting coverage information within 30 days.

After 41 days, the attorney “withdrew” the offer, filed suit, and the claimants at issue were awarded a judgment of $5.3 million against the insured’s estate. The estate then filed suit against the insurer for the full amount of the judgment. The trial court granted the insurer’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the insurer could not have reasonably known that all of the injured parties’ claims could have been settled within the policy limits. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed, relying on a rigid application of Holt, finding that a jury could find that a demand had been made with a “purported 30-day time limit” and that the insurer failed to settle the two claims at issue within that timeframe. The Georgia Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals, finding that there was no “time-limited” demand for settlement and that the insurer could not be liable for bad-faith failure to settle when the claimant unilaterally withdrew a pending offer that had no express time limit. 

Georgia’s highest court in Hughes made three key holdings that work to further limit an insurer’s potential exposure from the use of set-up demands:

An insurer’s duty to settle does not arise until the injured party presents a valid offer.

The court in Hughes held that insurers cannot be liable for excess judgments if the claimant never presented a valid offer to settle a claim within the insured’s policy limits. Before Hughes, courts had openly questioned whether under Georgia law an insurer could be liable for bad-faith failure to settle even without an express offer to settle for the policy limits. Many plaintiffs argued that an insurer had an obligation to initiate settlement discussions or make an offer even if the claimant had not. However, the court in Hughes recognized that such a rule would encourage after-the-fact testimony that a claimant would have settled every time a judgment is entered that exceeds the policy limit. 

By holding that a claimant must first present a valid offer to settle within the policy limits, the court has provided insurers with a powerful defense to set-up demands that are vague, contradictory, or fail to settle the entire claim. In those instances, insurers can argue that there was no valid offer to “accept” that would avoid future liability for the insured.

Whether a claimant has made a valid offer to settle is a legal question decided by the court according to the general rules of contract construction.

The court also struck at the heart of set-up demands that provide vague, confusing, or contradictory terms by holding that courts must construe the validity of an offer as a matter of law, resorting to a jury only if ambiguity remains after applying the rules of contract construction. Ambiguous demand letters are construed against the drafter—in this instance, the claimant. Before Hughes, plaintiffs often sought to avoid summary judgment (and to appeal to sympathetic jurors) by arguing that the interpretation or intent of a demand letter was a fact question that was appropriately resolved at trial and by arguing that agreements are generally construed in favor of the insured or claimant.

The court in Hughes clarified that demand letters are to be construed against the injured party, and that if its terms are “too indefinite for a court to [ ] determine, there can be no assent thereto” and the offer is not valid. Applying this basic rule of contract interpretation, the court held as a matter of law that there was no time-limited demand when a claimant mailed two separate letters—one expressing a willingness to attend a joint settlement conference or, in the alternative, to settle the claims if insurance information was provided, and the other requesting insurance information within 30 days. In light of Hughes, insurers will have a powerful defense when faced with vague, confusing, or contradictory demand letters.

Insurers may exhaust the policy limits by settling one of multiple claims, but need not do so absent a time-limited demand.

Finally, the court addressed the situation insurers face when there are multiple claimants involved. It has long been the rule that an insurer may settle one claim that exhausts the policy limits without incurring liability for excess judgments resulting from litigation by the non-settling claimants. However, Hughes clarifies that an insurer has no obligation to settle one of multiple claims for the full policy limits, absent a time-limited demand.

However, Hughes should not be seen as limiting an insurer’s potential liability in the face of a valid time-limited demand—even in the context of multiple claimants. The court noted that in Hughes, the two claimants at issue “expressed their interest in attending a settlement conference with the other claimants.” Consequently, the insurer’s failure to settle with the two individual claimants was “reasonable as an ordinarily prudent insurer could not be expected to anticipate that, having specified no deadline for the acceptance of their offer, [the claimants] would abruptly withdraw their offer and refuse to participate in the settlement conference.”

[1]  Effective July 1, 2013, Georgia enacted a law that provided insurers with a minimum of 30 days to respond to a time-limited demand and clarified that an insurer’s request for clarification of an offer letter will not be deemed a rejection and counteroffer. O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1(a)(1), (d).

Broken Water Main Damage: Flood or Not Flood Under Homeowner’s Insurance Policy?

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Paul LaSalle | Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog | May 9, 2019

In a recent court opinion,1 the New Jersey Appellate Division interpreted a homeowner’s insurance policy’s water damage exclusion and determined whether damage from a broken municipal water main under a public street was covered under the policy. In that case, a homeowner brought an action against his insurer for breach of contract after the insurer disclaimed coverage on the basis that damage to his real and personal property resulting from a broken water main was excluded under the policy as flood, surface and ground water intrusion.

The homeowner’s insurance policy at issue in that case provided all risk coverage for damage to the dwelling and other structures and named peril coverage for damage to personal property. The insurance policy’s form excluded losses caused by water damage, which was modified in reach by a “Water Back-Up and Sump Pump Discharge or Overflow” endorsement. The water damage exclusion included: “(1) Flood, surface water, waves …[the] overflow of any body of water … including storm surge” (Exclusion 1); and “(3) Water below the surface of the ground, including water which exerts pressure on, or seeps, leaks or flows through a building … or other structure” (Exclusion 3).

The insurance company claimed that Exclusion 1 applied because the water that caused the damage to the homeowner’s home was a “flood or surface water.” The insurance company also claimed that Exclusion 3 applied because below-ground water “exerted pressure on, … seeped, leaked or flowed through a building, sidewalk … driveway…or other structure.” The court disagreed.

The court initially noted that the insurance policy did not exclude all losses resulting from water, and that unless the kind of water that caused the damage to the homeowner’s dwelling satisfied one of the identified forms of water, the water damage exclusion did not apply. With respect to “flood” as defined in Exclusion 1, the court ruled that flood does not clearly encompass water released from a broken water main. In ruling so, the court noted that the insurance company’s Notice Regarding Flood Damage Coverage (which the insurance company invoked to define flood because the term was undefined by the water exclusion) provided that a “flood” “is a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry areas.” Therefore, even if it was assumed that the homeowner’s driveway, a “normally dry land area,” was partially or completely inundated because of the broken water main, and that inundation caused damage to the dwelling, the condition was not a “general” one, i.e., a water condition that was “not limited in scope, area, or application.” In other words, in order for the water condition to be considered a flood, it must affect a wide area and precludes the isolated water condition that specifically damaged the homeowner’s property.

The court commented that its definition of a flood was consistent with the view of other jurisdictions that have found that a flood “connotes a great inundation or deluge affecting a broad area, and not the kind of localized water damage that a water-main break causes.” The court further provided this line of thought is clearly connected to the position that “the principal defining characteristic of a flood is not that it is a natural phenomenon – it may arise from human actions – but that it involves the overflow of a body of water”—and a water main is not a body of water.

With respect to the insurance company’s claim that the broken water main damage was excluded as “surface water” in Exclusion 1, the court concluded that the term “surface water” was ambiguous.2 Nevertheless, the court found the water main break’s water did not qualify as surface water under both definitions of the term. Therefore, water from a water main break is not, unambiguously, surface water.

Moreover, the court rejected the insurance company’s claim that Exclusion 3 prevented the homeowner’s recovery because the water that damaged the home was no longer “below the surface of the ground” when it reached the property; it was above ground. The court found that by its plain meaning, Exclusion 3 does not address damage caused by above-ground water. Furthermore, water below the surface of a public street adjoining an insured’s property is neither mentioned, nor implied by Exclusion 3.

Finally, it bears noting that while the court reversed the trial court’s determination that the broken water main damage was barred by the water damage exclusion, the court affirmed the trial court’s order that the insured had not established that his personal property claim satisfied a named peril. While the court commented that the only named peril that would appear to apply would be coverage for personal property by the “accidental discharge or overflow of water…,” and that provision does not extend if the discharge occurred off the “residence premises,” the court would leave the coverage determination to the trial court because the provision had not been addressed by the parties.
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1 Sosa v. Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co., No. A-5349-16T3, 2019 WL 1780983 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Apr. 24, 2019).
2 The insurance policy did not define “surface water” and the court found there were two competing but plausible meanings of the term. Surface water has been defined by the New Jersey Administrative Code to possess a permanent nature, akin to a body of water (such as water in lakes, ponds, streams, etc.). Alternatively, a prior opinion of a New Jersey court found surface waters “are those which fall on the land from the skies or arise in springs” and embrace waters derived from falling rain and melting snow, whether on the ground or on the roofs of buildings thereon.

Does an Insurance Adjuster Have Deadlines To Work and Finish My Claim? A California Guide

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Victor Jacobellis | Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog | May 8, 2019

The California Fair Claims Settlement Practices Act imposes multiple deadlines to respond and report to insureds during a claim adjustment. Knowing and understanding an insurer’s reporting duties and deadlines can speed up the adjustment and payment of a claim. Although a failure to meet a deadline by a day or two may not, in and of itself, constitute bad faith, failing to respond to an insured or repeated failure to meet deadlines is evidence of an insurer’s poor conduct and may be evidence of bad faith.

Insurers’ reporting duties are scattered throughout the California Fair Claims Settlement Practices Act. They can therefore be difficult to follow and keep track of when advocating on an insured’s behalf. If an insurer has not met a deadline, it is a best practice always to send a written communication confirming and setting forth all facts that identify the insurer’s failure to comply with its reporting obligations under California law.

The major deadlines are set forth below and can be summarized as follows:

  • An insurer has 15 days to acknowledge it received notice of a claim. The insurer should also provide any necessary forms and instructions for the claim, should offer reasonable assistance to the insured and begin its investigation. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.5(e).
  • An insurer has 40 days to accept or deny a claim in whole or in part. If an insurer is unable to accept or deny a claim, it should provide a written explanation of why it cannot come to a claim decision and describe what additional information it needs. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.7(b). Always immediately inform an insurer in writing if it has not complied with this deadline.
  • If an insurer needs additional time, i.e., more than 40 days, to investigate a claim, it must provide written notice explaining the reasons why more time is needed. The insurer is further required to provide a written update on the status of the claim investigation every 30 days until the claim investigation is complete. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.7(c). Whenever you receive a status letter stating more time is needed for an insurer to accept or deny coverage, immediately calendar a reminder for 35 days to see if an insurer has provided a 30-day status letter. Promptly notify the insurer if it has not complied with this request.
  • An insurer has 15 days to respond to every communication from an insured that reasonably suggests a response is necessary. The insurer is required to provide as complete a response as possible. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.5(b).
  • An insurer must provide written notice of any statute of limitation or other time period requirement an insurer may rely on to deny to a claim no less than 60 days before that date. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.7(f).
  • And last, but certainly not least, an insurer has 30 days to tender payment after an agreement for claim payment is reached, and any necessary release is executed. Cal. Ins. Code § 2695.7(h).

Knowing and monitoring all of these dates will enhance your representation of insureds and build your credibility with carriers.

Insurance Policy’s Promise to Advance Claims Expense for Covered Claims Does Not Create a Duty to Defend

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Christopher Kendrick and Valerie Moore | Haight Brown & Bonesteel | May 7, 2019

In United Farm Workers of America v. Hudson Insurance Company, (E.D. Cal.) 2019 WL 1517568, the United Farm Workers of America union (UFW) sued Hudson Insurance Company for breach of contract and bad faith arising out of a former employee’s wrongful termination and wage and hour lawsuit.

Hudson provided UFW with Labor Professional Liability Insurance that included employment practices liability coverage. Hudson reserved its rights and agreed to pay an allocated share of the defense costs, citing the terms of its policy. UFW and Hudson agreed to a 50-50 allocation and, defending itself, UFW moved to compel arbitration of the employee lawsuit pursuant to its collective bargaining agreement. However, the trial court found that the only claim subject to arbitration was the employee’s wrongful termination claim, which Hudson contended eliminated the sole covered cause of action.

The employee’s complaint was amended to include class action allegations for the statutory wage and hour claims and the case proceeded to trial, resulting in an adverse judgment of $1.2 million. Hudson paid UFW for the allocated share of the defense costs incurred through the dismissal of the sole covered claim, and disclaimed any obligation for the wage and hour award.

Hudson retained Haight, Brown & Bonesteel to defend the company against the subsequent bad faith lawsuit brought by the UFW, which alleged that Hudson wrongfully failed to defend or indemnify the union for the employees’ lawsuit. Besides the $1.2 million wage and hour award, UFW claimed in excess of $800,000 incurred defending itself as damages.

UFW and Hudson brought cross-motions for summary judgment, with UFW seeking summary adjudication on the duty to defend. UFW argued that Hudson had a duty to defend the entirety of the employee lawsuit based on the mere potential for coverage, which was not extinguished by the partial grant of UFW’s motion to compel arbitration. (Citing Gray v. Zurich Ins. Co. (1966) 65 Cal.2d 263; Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Super. Ct. (1993) 6 Cal. 4th 287; and Buss v. Super. Ct. (1997) 16 Cal.4th 35.) UFW argued that Hudson’s failure to do so amounted to a bad faith breach of contract, exposing Hudson to the full amount of the defense costs, the resulting judgment, UFW’s own attorney’s fees for suing Hudson under Brandt v. Super. Ct. (1985) 37 Cal.3d 813, and other damages.

Hudson’s cross-motion for summary judgment asserted that there was no duty to defend under the terms of its policy, which expressly stated that UFW had the duty to defend. Under the policy, Hudson was only obligated to advance defense expenses for covered claims, subject to an allocation based on the respective liabilities and further subject to reimbursement in the event of an uncovered result, none of which translated into a duty to defend. (Citing Jeff Tracy, Inc. v. United States Spec. Ins. Co. (C.D. Cal. 2009) 636 F.Supp.2d. 995; and Petersen v. Columbia Casualty Company (C.D. Cal.) 2012 WL 5316352.) Further, although the employee’s original claim for wrongful termination was a covered claim under the Hudson policy’s definition of Wrongful Employment Practices, Hudson argued that none of the statutory wage and hour claims that remained after wrongful termination was ordered to arbitration came within the policy’s Wrongful Acts, Wrongful Offenses or Wrongful Employment Practices coverages. (Citing California Dairies v. RSUI Indem. Co. (E.D. Cal. 2009) 617 F.Supp.2d 1023.)

Consequently, Hudson contended that its payment after the entry of judgment, limited to an allocated share of the defense expense, and its disclaimer of coverage for the wage and hour award, were entirely proper and not in breach of the contract. In addition, Hudson uncovered the existence of misrepresentations in UFW’s application for the insurance during discovery, which Hudson argued voided the policy. (Citing Imperial Cas. Co. v. Sogomonian (1988) 198 Cal.App.3d 169; and Thompson v. Occidental Life (1973) 9 Cal.3d 904.) Without coverage or a breach of contract, Hudson argued that there could be no bad faith.

The district court agreed with Hudson, denying UFW’s motion for summary adjudication on the duty to defend and granting Hudson’s cross-motion for summary judgment. The court found that there was no duty to defend under the terms of the policy, which imposed the duty to defend on the insured and not the insurer. The court agreed that Hudson’s obligation was limited to payment for the cost of defending claims actually covered by the policy, and the award for wage and hour violations did not come within any of the policy’s coverages. Additionally, the court found that UFW made material misrepresentations in its application for insurance, holding that the contract was void. Because there was no coverage there was no breach of contract, and the cause of action for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing had to fail as well, entitling Hudson to summary judgment.

This document is intended to provide you with information about insurance law related developments.The contents of this document are not intended to provide specific legal advice. If you have questions about the contents of this alert, please contact the authors. This communication may be considered advertising in some jurisdictions.

How To File A Complaint With The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation About Your Delaying, Denying and Bad Treating Insurance Company

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Daniel Veroff | Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog | May 10, 2019

When Oreganians are mistreated by their insurance companies, they can turn to the state government for help. Oregon’s Division of Financial Regulation has the authority to accept and investigate complaints by consumers.

Filing a consumer complaint can be done on the Division’s website and is an easy process. The website includes a fillable form that asks some basic questions about the insurance at issue. It then asks for a description of the issues, and for the insured’s thoughts on what would constitute a fair resolution.

According to the Division, most complaints are resolved within 60 days. The Division states:

Once we receive a complaint, an advocate will:

• Let you know in writing that we received your complaint

• Send a copy of your complaint to the insurance company, agent, or both

• Obtain a detailed response from the company, agent, or both

• Analyze the response and any supporting documents (the company or agent must respond within three weeks)

• Determine whether more information is needed or there is a possible violation

• Advise you of our findings.

The Division’s website also cautions as to what it can and cannot do in response to a compliant:

Oregon also offers a neat tool on its website for searching to find complaint comparable to yours.1 If you find that your insurance company is treating many customers the same way, you may be able to use that as leverage against your insurance company or with the Division to get extra help. The website also has other information about past complaints that can be helpful, including annual summaries.2

To contact the Division, you can go onto their website, the links in the footnotes, or contact as follows:

Phone: 888-877-4894 (toll-free)
Email: DFR.InsuranceHelp@oregon.gov

If you are not certain of your insurance claim rights or if you have questions about your policy benefits, please do not hesitate to call Merlin Law Group attorneys.
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1 https://dfr.oregon.gov/help/complaints-licenses/Pages/complaint-compare-search-tool.aspx
2 https://dfr.oregon.gov/help/complaints-licenses/Pages/complaint-information.aspx