Defending Institutional Bad Faith Claims, Part III – Proof by Other Claims

In Part I of this series, we explored the differences between institutional and non-institutional bad faith. For claims of institutional bad faith, plaintiffs often attempt to demonstrate a pattern and practice by offering evidence of claims of other policyholders. Unlike claims of institutional bad faith premised on the insurer’s policies and procedures, “other claims” allegations do not require knowledge of the insurer’s motives or internal programs, but instead rely on evidence of repeated behavior to make the threshold showing of bad faith.

When a plaintiff attempts to offer specific factual allegations relating to other policyholders in order to demonstrate a general business practice, the relevant inquiries relate to any actual similarities between the claims and the threshold at which the plaintiff alleges enough “other claims” to constitute a general business practice. “A defendant’s dissimilar acts, independent from the acts upon which liability was premised, may not serve as the basis for punitive damages.”[1] Unique policyholders make unique insurance claims. Factors courts consider in determining whether acts involving other policyholders suggest a general business practice include: (1) the degree of similarity between the alleged unfair practices in other instances and the practice allegedly harming the plaintiff; (2) the degree of similarity between the insurance policy held by the plaintiff and the polices held by other alleged victims of the insurer’s practices; (3) the degree of similarity between the claims made under the plaintiff’s policy and those made by other alleged victims under their respective policies; and (4) the degree to which the insurer is related to other entities engaging in similar practices.[2]

Use the plaintiff’s detailed bad faith allegations to show that the alleged bad faith is unique to the circumstances of the case, and but for the specific circumstances, each successive act or omission would not have happened. Consider the pool of policyholders that the plaintiff is offering as similar. Variables to analyze—in addition to the allegations of bad faith conduct—include the geographic scope, the temporal range, the type of loss or claim, and the personnel involved. In the discovery context, the Supreme Court of Texas considered “the many variables associated with a particular claim, such as when the claim was filed, the condition of the property at the time of filing (including the presence of any preexisting damage), and the type and extent of damage inflicted by the covered event.”[3]

With respect to the number of other claims, some courts require the plaintiff to “produce evidence of far more than three other claims in addition to his own.”[4] While there is no “magic number,” the “appropriate consideration is whether the plaintiff has made facially plausible allegations that, in the circumstances of the particular case, the defendant has engaged in the alleged wrongful acts enough to suggest it has a general business practice of doing so.”[5]

The best practice for limiting general business practices discovery is to stop it before it starts. Scrutinize the pleadings carefully. When the plaintiff attempts to demonstrate a general business practice with allegations regarding other insurance claims, explore the similarities and the dissimilarities of the claims and emphasize the latter. Failure to do so gives the plaintiff an opportunity to go on what might be a costly and intrusive fishing expedition.

[1] State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408, 422 (2003).

[2] Belz v. Peerless Ins. Co., 46 F. Supp. 3d 157, 166 (D. Conn. 2014).

[3] In re National Lloyds Ins. Co., 449 S.W.3d 486, 489 (Tex. 2014). In National Lloyds, the Supreme Court of Texas vacated a trial court order compelling an insurer to produce documents relating to the insurer’s valuation of other insurance claims. The court held that the insurer’s evaluation of the damage to other homes is not probative of the plaintiff’s undervaluation claims at issue. Id.

[4] See, e.g., Jablonski v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., No. 2:07-cv-00386, 2010 WL 1417063 (M.D. Fla. Apr. 7, 2010) (citing Howell-Demarest v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 673 So. 2d 526, 529 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1996)).

[5] Belz, 46 F. Supp. 3d at 167 (holding three alleged other instance of unfair settlement practices are sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss); see also K Kim v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., No. 3:15-cv-879, 2015 WL 6675532, at *5 (D. Conn. Oct. 30, 2015) (“Here, Plaintiffs rely on one instance of wrongful conduct, the denial of their claim at issue in this litigation. They fail to allege any pattern of wrongful conduct, either with respect to their claim or those of others.”).