insurance & bad faith

Homeowner sued his homeowner’s insurance carrier for breach of contract and bad faith for failing to pay for extensive snowstorm damage repairs. Plaintiff contended the insurer’s inspections were not made by contractors, but by adjustors, who used a database to arrive at their figures. Plaintiff asserted this was unreliable.

Plaintiff was a client of a CPA who was a partner in a small firm. The CPA convinced client to allow him to manage her substantial liquid assets and invest them. The CPA opened trust accounts for client, engaged in a check kiting scheme with her trust funds and embezzled almost her entire estate by transferring her trust funds into shell entities he created to siphon off her money. Plaintiff sued the CPA and his partners and made a claim on the partnership professional liability policy under the “innocent partner” exception. Plaintiff joined the bank for allowing the check kiting and embezzlement from her trust accounts. The case settled on the eve of trial after 5 years of litigation.

Plaintiff, a practicing medical doctor, alleged he became disabled from further practice of medicine. Defendant insurance company paid him disability benefits for several years and then allegedly arbitrarily stopped paying his benefits, claiming he was no longer disabled.