Court Opinion

ID: 9565851
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:29:02.902967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:08.586291
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The appellant contends on motion for rehearing that we have overlooked the holding of the Supreme Court in International Indem. Co. v. Collins, 258 Ga. 236 (367 SE2d 786) (1988), that “[w]hen the Court of Appeals is divided on an issue, and certiorari is granted to resolve the issue, the insurer is legally justified in litigating the issue and cannot be held liable for a statutory bad faith penalty as a matter of law.” Id. at 238. (Emphasis supplied.) Of course, the Supreme Court has not yet had an opportunity to entertain an application for certiorari in the present case; and we have no way of knowing whether, if such an application is ultimately filed, it will be granted. Consequently, we do not view International Indemnity as compelling a reversal of the jury’s award of penalties and attorney fees in this case.
Rather than simply paying a $2,500 no-fault claim submitted on behalf of a child who was concededly injured in connection with his use and occupancy of the insured vehicle, the appellant insurer chose to pursue a lengthy and costly declaratory judgment action to obtain a ruling that it had no obligation in the matter. This decision could not possibly have been cost effective even had the appellant prevailed in the declaratory judgment action, given the small size of the claim and the remoteness of the possibility that a freak occurrence of the *665sort giving rise to it would repeat itself in the future. Of course, as it turned out, the appellant did not obtain a favorable ruling in the declaratory judgment action but instead obtained a ruling that its defense to the claim lacked merit as a matter of law. To reverse the jury’s award of attorney fees and punitive damages in this situation would be to hold that no-fault insurers may resist small claims with impunity and thus, as a practical matter, defeat them, simply by interposing arguable defenses which, though insufficiently meritorious to withstand summary judgment proceedings, do not conflict squarely with existing precedent. Because we are unwilling to create such a rule and because we are unable to predict whether the Supreme Court will grant certiorari to review our decision in this regard, a majority of this court continues to believe the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.
Decided April 11, 1990
Rehearing denied May 16, 1990
Crim & Bassler, Harry W. Bassler, Philip G. Pompilio, for appellant.
Burt & Swan, Walter H. Burt III, William S. Stone, for appellees.

The motion for rehearing is accordingly denied.