Court Opinion

ID: 9773067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:35:48.127702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:49.837743
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur only in the results. I respectfully disagree with the ratio decidendi. Further, the Majority Opinion goes beyond stating what is reasonably necessary and appropriate to decide this case.
The key to this case is that the only wrongdoing alleged against the workers’ compensation insurance carrier is a refusal to pay, albeit presumably arbitrary and unreasonable. There were no affirmative acts of harassment or deception. Refusing to pay, however arbitrary or unreasonable, is not in itself misconduct of the type described by the Restatement (Second) Torts, Sec. 46, and Craft v. Rice, Ky., 671 S.W.2d 247 (1984), which adopted the Restatement.
Arbitrary (or bad faith) refusal to pay may give rise to a cause of action on behalf of an insured against his insurer. But this case does not qualify as a claim by the insured against his own insurer for “bad faith” in refusing to pay. The claimant, Mitchell, was not insured by the insurance carrier/defendants. The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times Company was the insured, not Mitchell. The duty of good faith is a fiduciary type obligation of protection owed by an insurer to its insured.
The reason that in some cases we have permitted a cause of action for bad faith *345against the insurer on the part of an injured claimant (a so-called third party bad faith claim) is because breach of the duty of good faith owed to the insured has resulted in a judgment against the insured in excess of the policy limits, and the insured has then assigned his rights under the policy to the injured claimant. See Manchester Ins. & Indem. Co. v. Grundy, Ky.App., 531 S.W.2d 493 (1975).
The reason why the present case does not qualify as a cause of action for outrageous conduct as recognized by our court in Craft v. Rice, supra, is because neither the insurance company nor its agents engaged in trickery, deceit or similar contemptible conduct as necessary to serve as a basis for a cause of action for outrageous conduct. Simply refusing to pay, per se does not qualify as the tort of outrage.
However, refusing to pay an amount due under a workers’ compensation award could qualify as the tort of outrage if accompanied by other misconduct of a contemptible nature. Unruh v. Truck Ins. Exchange, 7 Cal.3d 616, 102 Cal.Rptr. 815, 498 P.2d 1063 (1972), as explained by Robertson v. Traveler’s Ins. Co., 95 Ill.2d 441, 69 Ill.Dec. 954, 448 N.E.2d 866 (1983).
Any person, including a claimant owed money by reason of the Workers’ Compensation Act, has a cause of action for the tort of outrage when and if the refusal to pay is accompanied by other acts of misconduct of a contemptible or outrageous nature. The Workers’ Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for refusal to pay,1 but it does not foreclose a cause of action if tortious misconduct accompanies the refusal to pay. cf. Firestone Textile Co. Div. v. Meadows, Ky., 666 S.W.2d 730 (1983). In this case refusal to pay is the only misconduct alleged.

. The majority opinion cites Westvaco Corp. v. Fondaw, Ky., 698 S.W.2d 837 (1985), as holding that if the workers' compensation insurance carrier refused to pay "medical expenses claimed under [the Board’s] award,” then “the complaining party must petition the Board to resolve the dispute.” Presumably this means the carrier who decides not to pay must petition the Board for authority to stop payment, because Westvaco holds:
"In the future, when an employer seeks to dispute a medical or drug bill submitted by the disabled worker, the procedure to be followed is for the employer to file a motion before the Board to reopen the award for medical expenses under KRS 342.125.” 698 S.W.2d at 839.