Court Opinion

ID: 9848058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:12:12.875411+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:58.263762
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially. I concur fully in Division 1 of the majority opinion; but as to Division 2, on the question of bad faith, penalty and attorney’s fees, I concur specially for the same reasons as are set forth in my specially concurring opinion in the recent case of State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. v. Harper, 125 Ga. App. 696 (188 SE2d 813).
I repeat what was said there, to wit, that Code Ann. § 56-1206 (New Insurance Code of 1960) has been rendered impotent and meaningless by judicial interpretation, including decisions by the Supreme Court of Georgia, which are binding on this court. It is almost impossible, under these precedents, to make out a case in which a verdict and judgment for penalty and attorney’s fees against an insurance company will be affirmed by Georgia’s appellate courts. I do not believe our lawmakers intended this statute should be so handcuffed and hamstrung as to make it inoperable for the effective awarding of attorney’s fees and penalty for bad faith against an insurer. This statute was enacted 100 years ago. What is there in its language to give license to the appellate courts to hold, as we do here, that "a defense *217presenting enough to show a reasonable and probable cause for refusing payment legally vindicates the good faith of the company as effectually as would a complete defense to the action?” Or, that a defense, "seeking judicial determination of an issue involving a question of law previously undecided” lets the insurer home-free? Surely it was not intended that each new and novel defense the insurer could interpose would eliminate bad faith.
My esteemed associates are correct in their determination of this case, but only because under the rule of stare decisis we are bound by precedents of this court and of the Supreme Court of Georgia. I favor the overruling of all of those cases which so hold; but this court is powerless to overrule decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Meantime, the General Assembly should take a new look at this statute, and inquire as to whether we really have a "bad-faith statute” as to insurance companies in this State.