Court Opinion

ID: 9584222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:45:38.483755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:09.217546
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment only, because I am bound by the rule of stare decisis, wherein this court and the Supreme Court of Georgia have construed the "bad faith” statute in many binding precedents, but with which precedents I do not agree. I do not agree with all that is said in the opinion, in the case sub judice, not because I differ with my associates, who are also bound by the rule of stare decisis, but because I do not believe those precedent cases are correct, and if it lay within my power to do so, I would overrule them and would affirm the award of penalty and attorney’s fees in this case.
Whatever happened to the law requiring insurance companies to pay a penalty and attorney’s fees for bad faith? *702This law has been on the statute books for one hundred years. In 1872 the General Assembly of Georgia enacted a statute providing that if a loss occurs and the insurance company fails to pay. the claim within sixty days after demand shall have been made by the holder of the policy, said insurer shall be liable to pay not more than 25% on the liability and all reasonable attorney’s fees, provided the refusal to pay is in bad faith. See Georgia Laws 1872, p. 43. This same law exists in comparable form today, and is now known as Code Ann. §56-1206 (Insurance Code of 1960).
But little by little our appellate courts have chiseled and whittled away until this statute, by judicial interpretation and construction, is almost meaningless. It is a rare case indeed, when penalty and attorneys fees are awarded for bad faith, that such case runs the gauntlet of the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court and comes out unscathed. Almost all of them end in a requirement that the verdict of the jury be modified and that penalty and attorney’s fees for bad faith be written off.
I disagree with these many judicial interpretations of the statute and find no basis therefor. What was the "intent” of the General Assembly in enacting this statute one hundred years ago, and in keeping it on the statute books, with slight amendment, until the present time? Our appellate courts have held that the intent of the General Assembly must be read into this statute so as to show that it was not intended that bad faith could be upheld, and penalty and attorney’s fees awarded:
1. If the insurance company has "reasonable grounds to defend” the suit. Royal Ins. Co. v. Cohen, 105 Ga. App. 746 (3) (125 SE2d 709).
2. If the evidence authorized a finding for defendant, although the jury did not accept defendant’s version, and rendered a verdict against that version and in plaintiff’s favor. Old Colony Ins. Co. v. Dressel, 109 Ga. App. 465 (3) (136 SE2d 525).
3. If there was "reasonable and probable cause” for deny*703ing plaintiff’s claim. Ga. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Boney, 113 Ga. App. 459 (3) (148 SE2d 457).
4. If there is a bona fide dispute between claimant and his insurer as to the amount of the loss. Ga. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Boney, supra.
5. If the interpretation of the policy presents a close question (even though the insurer’s lawyers wrote the policy, studied it and should know it forward and backward, and even though all ambiguities must be construed most strongly against the insurer.) U. S. Fidel. &c. Co. v. Woodward, 118 Ga. App. 591 (2) (164 SE2d 878).
6. If the case presents a question of law that is intricate and difficult. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Standridge, 103 Ga. App. 442 (5) (119 SE2d 585).
7. If some particular provision of the policy has not been heretofore construed by the Georgia courts. Life Ins. Co. of Ga. v. Burke, 219 Ga. 214 (1) (132 SE2d 737).
8. If the insurer’s refusal to pay is not both "frivolous and unfounded.” Dependable Ins. Co. v. Gibbs, 218 Ga. 305, 316 (127 SE2d 454). (Formerly the language was "frivolous or unfounded.” Cimarron Ins. Co. v. Pace, 212 Ga. 427, 431 (93 SE2d 593); Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Lovett, 50 Ga. App. 763, 768 (179 SE 253); American Nat. Ins. Co. v. Holbert, 50 Ga. App. 527, 528 (179 SE 219).
9. If the plaintiff does not recover every penny that he sues for (even though the insurance company denies any indebtedness whatever). See Great American Indem. Co. v. Kennedy, 94 Ga. App. 567, 570 (95 SE2d 742); Firemen’s Ins. Co. v. Larsen, 52 Ga. App. 140 (3) (182 SE 677).
But let it be noted that our appellate courts have also held to the contrary on this question. See Canal Ins. Co. v. Winge Bros., 97 Ga. App. 782, 786 (104 SE2d 525); Central Mfrs.’ Mut. Ins. Co. v. Graham, 24 Ga. App. 199 (4) (99 SE 434); Metropolitan Ins. Co. v. Lovett, 50 Ga. App. 763, 766, supra; New York Life Ins. Co. v. Williamson, 53 Ga. App. 28 (1b) (184 SE 755).
These are some, but by no means all of the conditions that have been engrafted onto the bad faith statute by judi*704cial interpretation and construction, the effect of which is to allow an almost complete escape from payment of penalty and attorney’s fees for bad faith. Could it he that our General Assembly really intended that this statute be so restricted, hampered, and placed in a strait-jacket? Did the General Assembly mean to give lip service only to the question of bad faith, with no real relief to be afforded? It is true that occasionally a verdict for bad faith is affirmed, but it is so rare as to be almost like Shakespeare’s dissertation on the fishnet:
"Help master, help! Here’s a fish hangs in the net like a poor man’s right in the law; ’twill hardly come out.”
(Pericles Prince of Tyre 11:1).
If the language used in Code Ann. §56-1206 (which seems clear and unambiguous) means what our courts have construed it to mean, then the General Assembly should take a second look at the statute. If it is intended to do away with the bad faith law entirely, a simple repeal of the statute would accomplish that end; but if it is intended that the law shall be effective, some amendment is indicated to overcome the various far-fetched constructions and interpretations that have been placed thereon by our appellate courts of Georgia.