AMENDED COMPLAINT STILL FAILS PLAUSIBILITY TEST WITHOUT REQUISITE PREDICATE FACTS (Philadelphia Federal)
The original bad faith claim in this property damage case was dismissed. A summary of that decision can be found here.
The dismissal was without prejudice, and the insured filed an amended bad faith claim. The insurer moved to dismiss, and obtained another dismissal. Again, however, the dismissal was without prejudice; though any new amendment was limited to facts learned during discovery, as the sole basis to seek amendment.
Prior to its detailed analysis, the court quoted its earlier admonition to the insureds that “‘[i]f Plaintiffs are unable to allege plausible facts underlying their various claims of bad faith, then the Complaint should not be amended.’”
The court adhered to the following process in reviewing the complaint’s plausiblity: “(1) identifying the elements of the claim, (2) reviewing the complaint to strike conclusory allegations, and then (3) looking at the well-pleaded components of the complaint and evaluating whether all of the elements identified in part one of the inquiry are sufficiently alleged.” In essence, “[a] plaintiff cannot merely say that an insurer acted unfairly, but instead must describe with specificity what was unfair.”
Despite amendment, the complaint still pleaded no facts “with respect to the timing of the investigation, the methods and procedures which Defendant employed during the investigation, and the length of the investigation.” Moreover, “[b]eyond the investigation-related allegations, all of the allegations in the original Complaint are simply restated [in the Amended Complaint], without any additional factual information, in the Amended Complaint.”
In addition to these “repackaged” allegations, there were purportedly 12 new allegations in the amended complaint. As with the first complaint, however, these were merely legal conclusions without “prerequisite factual support”.
By way of example, the insured alleged intentional and unreasonable delays in claim handling, but failed to allege any facts showing “(1) how Defendant’s action were purposeful, (2) what made Defendant’s actions unreasonable, or (3) the extent of Defendant’s ‘delay’ in adjusting their claim.” Similarly, “Plaintiffs also allege that Defendant acted in bad faith by failing to respond to their communications and requests for information. … But Plaintiffs never allege the dates of these communications, the number of communications in question, or the substance of these communications.”
In sum, the “added allegations are simply more of the same; they lack the required factual specificity and rely on impermissible legal conclusions….”
Leave to amend a second time was denied as “futile because Plaintiffs have already had an opportunity to cure the deficiencies of their bad faith claim in the original Complaint and have failed to do so. Given Plaintiffs’ failure to sufficiently amend their bad faith claim, the Court is satisfied that Plaintiffs are not entitled to a third proverbial bite of the apple.”
That being said, the court did allow for future amendment under limited circumstances. If new facts were uncovered during discovery that supported a bad faith claim, only then could the insureds file a motion for leave to amend. Thus, while the court would not permit another amendment at this time, dismissal was still without prejudice.
Date of Decision: August 6, 2019
MBMJ Props., LLC v. Millville Mut. Ins. Co., U. S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania CIVIL ACTION NO. 18-5071, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131217, 2019 WL 3562019 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 6, 2019) (Slomsky, J)
