I’m headed out for a conference at Rutgers on "bad faith" litigation against insurers, so it seems a good time for a war story.
To begin with, as I was taught by others, bad faith is a misnomer. Instead, the issue is that too many insurers too often fail to act in good faith.
Now, here’s the war story. In a past legal life as a trial lawyer for insureds, I confronted several not good faith arguments by QBE in cases involving condominium buildings hit by hurricanes. For example, QBE argued that windows in Florida condominium buildings were not part of the building. Really – they argued that – in lots of cases. Happily, in one case, I was able to take the issue to outcome. QBE lost (opinion here), and the trial judge’s oral argument comments made it plain he too thought the argument lacked good faith. QBE then wrote a large check.
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