Court Opinion

ID: 9851723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:18:39.849547+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:14.031214
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially.
In this case, the injured party was willing to settle for $10,000; the insurance company refused to settle, went to trial and a verdict was rendered against the defendant for $95,000. The defendant seeks to hold the insurer liable for not settling the case within the policy limits and leaving *390defendant subjected to a large judgment, which exceeds the insurance coverage by $85,000.
Ordinarily one who purchases a liability insurance policy has the right to expect its insurer to use ordinary diligence in protecting the insured defendant when suit arises. I go a step further than does the majority opinion by asserting that the insurance company is liable not only for bad faith in refusing to settle or enter in good faith into negotiations for settlement, but it is also liable for negligence in such failure. This was plainly held in Francis v. Newton, 75 Ga. App. 341 (1) (43 SE2d 282), and in a later case, to wit, Georgia Cas. &c. Co. v. Reville, 95 Ga. App. 358 (98 SE2d 210), at page 361 in which suit was brought against the insurance company in two counts for failure to settle, one count alleging bad faith and the other count alleging negligence, and was resolved in favor of the insured. That an insurance company is liable, not only for bad faith in refusing to enter negotiations for settlement within the policy limits, but also for its negligence in such failure is discussed authoritatively in one of the early works on this subject, to wit: Preferential Settlement of Liability — Insurance Claims by Professor Robert E. Keeton in Harvard Law Review, Issue of November, 1956 (Vol. 70, 1956/57, p. 27, Harvard Law Review).
But the case of Francis v. Newton, 75 Ga. App. 341, supra, also makes it plain that the duty of making such settlement is between the insurance company and its policyholder. Here we are involved with an uninsured motorist, and the plaintiff can in no sense be characterized as a policyholder, and hence is not entitled to prevail in this case.