Opinion ID: 2975530
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Bad Faith Breach of Insurance Contract

Text: The Estate contends that the its well-pleaded allegations of fraud were sufficient to allow its bad-faith-breach-of-insurance-contract claim to proceed to trial. As an initial matter, as discussed, the Estate failed to plead fraud with particularity. Therefore, this argument is also meritless. In any event, as the district court explained, Michigan does not recognize an independent tort based on bad faith breach of an insurance contract. See, e.g., Kewin v. Mass. Mut. Life Ins. Co., 295 -7- No. 06-1694 Jimkoski v. State Farm Auto Ins. N.W.2d 50, 56 (Mich. 1980) (“We decline to follow the California court and to declare the mere bad-faith breach of an insurance indemnity contract an independent and separately actionable tort and to thereby open the door to recovery for mental pain and suffering caused by breach of a commercial contract.”). And the Estate does not allege the breach of any duty existing independent on the insurance contract. See id. at 55; Roberts v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 374 N.W.2d 905, 907–08 (Mich. 1985). A mere failure to perform an obligation under a contract “cannot give rise to a negligence cause of action.” Id. at 909. Thus, the district court did not err when it dismissed the Estate’s bad-faith-breach-of-insurance-contract claim.