Firm Partner Tim Lake and Senior Associate William Brenner recently prevailed on a motion for summary judgment in a bad faith case where the insurance company was accused of wrongly denying coverage on a damaged gas tank. The plaintiff, a Riverside County gas station, made a claim related to a pinhole leak in one of its two 15,000 gallon gas tanks. The tank developed a pinhole leak as a result of settling onto a sharp rock which had been left in the pit area when the tank was installed. Read More
Once again – Tharpe & Howell’s Bad Faith Defense Team achieved excellent results for an insurance carrier client when the California Court of Appeal upheld the previous granting of a Motion for Summary Judgment in an action alleging bad faith!
In the underlying case, an insured of Fire Insurance Exchange (the Firm’s client), was sued for an alleged sexually motivated assault and false imprisonment.
In the subsequent bad faith case, the main issue concerned coverage for “false imprisonment” that was keyed to an “occurrence” defined as an “accident.” Read More
Partners Tim Lake and Chris Maile successfully defended an insurance carrier in a bad-faith case brought by an 83 year old plaintiff alleging the carrier had breached his homeowners insurance policy and committed bad-faith when it refused to pay a judgment against him of $235,000.00. As a result of some favorable legal rulings based upon coverage defenses asserted by the carrier and damaging testimony to the plaintiff’s case by several early witnesses, plaintiff settled the case during trial, rather than face possible dismissal on a non-suit motion. Read More
Tharpe & Howell’s Bad Faith Team successfully defended a nationally recognized insurance carrier in a bad faith action stemming from a claim for theft of a tractor.
In this case, the insured made a claim under a commercial vehicle policy for the theft of his Freightliner tractor. In response to the claim, the insurer denied coverage on the basis that the insured’s independent insurance broker failed to properly apply for theft coverage on the insured’s tractor. Read More
