California Court of Appeal

In this case, plaintiff suffered injuries when she was struck by a car driven by a driver who was insured by a policy issued by defendant. Plaintiff asserts that defendant - after having completed its investigation of the accident, identified the correct insurance policy and driver, and attempting to settle the claim by delivering to plaintiff's attorney a "full policy limits offer" - acted in bad faith for wrongful failure to settle, and that defendant should have made the fully policy limits offer more quickly. Judgment in favor of plaintiff is reversed, where: 1) plaintiff herself selected a deadline for offering full policy limits in settlement, and defendant's full policy limits offer was tendered prior to that deadline; and 2) an insurer has satisfied its duty to seek to settle in protection of its insured when the insurer tenders its full policy limits within the time limits imposed by an injured party's demand letter.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/13/2014
• Published 11/13/2014

Judges

• McDonald

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel