Insurance – Tort/Negligence – Bad Faith Claim – Reasonable Investigation

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Watson v. Foremost Signature Insurance Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-018-14, 5 pp.) (David C. Norton, J.) 2:13-cv-00301; D.S.C.

Holding: Plaintiff has not shown that the defendant-insurer acted in bad faith when it denied her claim for water damage, which she noticed more than a year after a tree limb fell on her mobile home.

The court grants the insurer summary judgment as to plaintiff’s bad faith claim.

It was not until 13 months after a large tree limb fell on her mobile home that plaintiff noticed water damage in her kitchen and found three broken joists under the subfloors of her kitchen. Nevertheless, the defendant insurer asserts that it thoroughly investigated plaintiff’s water-damage claim by inspecting the mobile home three times, but it found no indication that the kitchen damage was caused by a sudden occurrence. The insurer further asserts that the available information suggested that the claimed damage was caused by rain leakage, which was excluded under the parties’ policy.

Plaintiff’s reliance on the broad allegations of her complaint is not enough to show that the insurer’s failure to pay was anything other than a good-faith dispute about the extent of coverage or the cause of the damage.