Opinion ID: 1429067
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the anatomy of the petitioners' single claim against the insurer

Text: The gravamen of a claim against the insurer for withholding payment of a loss mala fide is unreasonable, bad-faith conduct. The insurer's decision to seek resort to a judicial forum is not per se bad faith or unfair dealing regardless of the outcome of the suit. [3] Conversely, a jury determination that the alleged UM/UIM tortfeasor was not at fault is not per se indicative of the insurer's good faith in handling the insured's demand for payment of the loss. Neither condemnation nor exoneration of the insurer's conduct may alone be dictated by the ultimate forensic resolution of the legal dispute over the loss. The insurer's good faith vel non is to be assessed by the trier from the totality of all the facts known and knowable about the loss at the time the insurer's contractual performance was due. The trial bifurcation sought in this case would make the UM/UIM tortfeasor's fault dispositive of the insured's cause of action and thus divert the jury's attention from the essence of the insured's claim  the absence of the insurer's good faith in its handling of the contested casualty loss in light of all the facts which were known or should have been known at the time the insurer's performance could reasonably have been expected. The UM/UIM tortfeasor's liability clearly presents here an issue inextricably intertwined with the remainder of the insured's single and indivisible claim. [4] In short, the tort liability of the City of Norman to the insured cannot be severed for separate submission in the first stage of a bifurcated trial without giving that issue undue prominence and thus distorting the gravamen of the petitioners' claim for the insurer's bad-faith refusal to settle the UIM loss in controversy.