AN INSURER DOES NOT ACT IN BAD FAITH WHEN IT DOES NOT BREACH A DUTY TO DEFEND OR INDEMNIFY, EVEN WHEN DENIAL IS BASED ON LATE NOTICE (Western District)
This case involves two bases for coverage denials: (1) late notice resulting in prejudice, and (2) first party claims are not covered under a commercial general liability policy.
The bad faith plaintiff is a general contractor. It was named as an additional insured on a subcontractor’s policy with the defendant insurer.
There was an explosion resulting in personal injury to a third party, and first party property damage to the contractor. The contractor was named as a defendant in the personal injury action, and claimed over against other parties, including the named insured subcontractor. The contractor also brought a property damage suit against others, including the subcontractor, for its own property damages.
Nearly 3½ years into the personal injury suit, the parties mediated a settlement. The contractor did not request a defense or indemnity from the insurer in the personal injury action until the day that suit settled. For the first time, during that mediation, the additional insured contractor orally requested a defense and indemnification from the defendant insurer.
A representative of the contractor’s own primary insurer was present at the mediation as well as a representative of the defendant insurer. However, the defendant insurer’s representative had only come to the mediation to represent the subcontractor’s interests, not the contractor’s interests.
There is no bad faith when the claim is plainly outside the scope of coverage.
The court readily found no coverage due for the contractor’s own property damage claims. The contractor was seeking coverage as an additional insured under the subcontractor’s CGL policy. CGL policies only apply to property damage claims raised by others against an insured, not to the insured’s own property damages.
An “insurer does not act in bad faith when the insurer does not breach its duty to defend or indemnify.” The property damage claim “was plainly outside the scope of coverage”. Thus, as there was no duty to defend or indemnify there could be no bad faith, and summary judgment was granted on both the first party property damage coverage and bad faith claims.
There could be no bad faith where late notice and prejudice also resulted in a coverage denial.
After extensive analysis, Judge Hornak concluded that there was no coverage due in the personal injury action because of the contractor’s late notice, and the actual prejudice resulting from the late notice. He granted the insurer’s summary judgment motion on any duty to defend or indemnify. The insurer lost the opportunity to retain counsel and pay a fee structure significantly less expensive than what was charged by the contractor’s counsel; lost “the opportunity to take control of the matter at an early stage and resolve it prior to the accumulation of those expenses”; lost the opportunity to advance potential defenses; and “was indisputably prejudiced by its inability to control [the] defense, or the costs incurred in furtherance of it, until the end of the underlying litigation—when [the contractor] expected payment for all of the expenses that they had accumulated up to that point along with what it ‘fronted’ for settlement.”
Absent that late notice and prejudice, there is no question the insurer had a duty to defend the personal injury claim against the contractor. Still, as no coverage was due because of the late notice and prejudice, there could be no bad faith under the same principles used in rejecting the bad faith claim on property damage, i.e., no coverage due = no bad faith.
However, the court went on to analyze the personal injury bad faith claim, assuming arguendo what would have happened if it allowed the issue of prejudice to go to the jury instead of granting summary judgment. Judge Hornak concluded that even under those circumstances, he would have rejected the bad faith claim. There was simply no basis in the record to show the insurer’s refusal to step in at the mediation, or its ongoing refusal to pay the contractor, was frivolous or unfounded.
The following facts were undisputed, and showed the insurer acted reasonably in believing it was prejudiced by late notice and would not have to provide any defense or indemnity payments. It did not choose counsel; the contractor had amassed years of legal fees and expenses over which the insurer had no control; the insurer “was not provided an accounting of the defense costs for which it would potentially have to indemnify” the contractor; the insurer “did not participate in early investigation or settlement discussions”; and the insurer “had no reason, until the moment that the oral demand was made, to believe that [the contractor] desired a defense or expected indemnification”.
The court also found it nonsensical to conclude the insurer could have made a decision in the midst of the mediation to provide indemnification and pay a settlement, or even could have stopped the mediation at which it was protecting the named insured’s interests. This was highlighted by the fact that the case had been going on for years, and the contractor had never before asked for defense or indemnification. Moreover, at that moment in time there remained legitimate coverage issues reasonably justifying a refusal to pay on demand.
Finally, the insurer’s ongoing refusal to pay for the subcontractor’s legal fees and settlement payment also had a reasonable foundation, and could not be deemed frivolous or unfounded. Thus, summary judgment on bad faith was granted even assuming it would not have been granted on the coverage claim.
Date of Decision: March 1, 2019
NVR, Inc. v. Motorists Mutual Insurance Co., U. S. District Court Western District of Pennsylvania No. 2:16-cv-00722, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32802, 2019 WL 989393 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 1, 2019) (Hornak, J.)
