Opinion ID: 755739
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legitimate Disputes

Text: 30 The district court utilized the Oklahoma Uniform Jury Instruction (OUJI) for bad faith when submitting the case to the jury. The instructions stated that the jury could find bad faith if, inter alia, the insurer had no reasonable basis for refusing the Policy. Enterprise complains that the jury instruction improperly suggests that bad faith may occur even if a reasonable basis for refusing to pay the claim might exist. Although Enterprise correctly reads the instruction, it does not follow that the instruction failed correctly to state Oklahoma law. Bad faith may be established by showing an unreasonable refusal to pay a claim, and the instructions set forth three alternative scenarios which are deemed to be unreasonable: (1) the insurance company had no reasonable basis for the refusal, (2) the insurance company did not perform a proper investigation, or (3) the insurance company did not evaluate the results of the investigation properly. As we pointed out earlier, merely because there is a reasonable basis that an insurance company could invoke to deny a claim does not necessarily immunize the insurer from a bad faith claim if, in fact, it did not actually rely on that supposed reasonable basis and instead took action in bad faith. Timberlake, 71 F.3d at 343. Because the jury instruction correctly stated the applicable law, we review the instruction for abuse of discretion in the particulars of its wording. We do not believe that the use of the standard Oklahoma instructions for bad faith cases constitutes an abuse of discretion. 31