Ragland v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co.: In a UM/UIM context, the validity of a bad faith failure to pay claim against an insurance company may be entirely dependent on the success of an underlying liability claim, and is not be ready for adjudication until after the underlying claim has been decided. Ragland’s Allegations against State Farm In July 2016, Lamar Ragland filed a lawsuit against State Farm, seeking punitive damages for State Farm’s alleged bad-faith failure to pay and related failure to subject Ragland’s claim for underinsured motorist (“UIM”) benefits for cognitive review. Ragland made the following allegations: He...
Jimmy L. Johnson, Jr. v. First Acceptance Insurance Company, Inc.: In Alabama, UIM coverage may only be rejected by an insured in writing, but the unanswered question is whether an electronic signature is sufficient for rejecting UIM coverage. The parties in this case squandered an opportunity to have the court decide what would have been a matter of first impression on the issue. After being involved in a motor vehicle accident, Jimmy L. Johnson, Jr. sued his insurance provider, First Acceptance Insurance Company, Inc. (“First Acceptance”) on July 28, 2014, seeking underinsured motorist (“UIM”) benefits. First Acceptance answered the suit,...
A UIM insurer does not have a subrogation interest in Lambert advance; the recovery by the insurer from the tortfeasor of a Lambert advance does not create a common fund; and the UIM insurer should not be required to pay attorney’s fees for the recovery of the Lambert advance under the common-fund doctrine.
