Court Opinion

ID: 9662520
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:11:54.082109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:26:54.705632
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Justice,
concurring.
I support the principle that recovery in tort should be available to an insured when its insurance company refuses in bad faith to pay on a claim. However, causes of action for tortious breach of contract must be carefully circumscribed, as set forth in Justice Leibson’s dissent in Federal Kem-per. An insured does not avail himself of this cause of action by merely alleging bad faith due to an insurance company’s disputing or delaying payment on a claim. An insured must prove that the insurer is obligated to pay under the policy, that the insurer lacks a reasonable basis for denying the claim, and that the insurer either knew there was no reasonable basis to deny the claim or acted with reckless disregard for whether such a basis existed. An insurer’s refusal to pay on a claim, alone, should not be sufficient to trigger the firing of this new tort.
LEIBSON, J., joins in this concurring opinion.