Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recently wrote about the Eleventh Circuit decision in McNamara v. Gov’t Employees Ins. Co., 30 F.4th 1055 (11th Cir. 2022) (“McNamara”), where the court held that a consensual settlement (such as a consent judgment) serves as an excess judgment for the purposes of a bad faith claim. In a follow up decision, the Eleventh Circuit extended its McNamara reasoning to a case involving an accepted proposal for settlement. In Potter v. Progressive American Insurance Company, No. 21-11134 (11th Cir. 2022), Daniel Lee and Jolene Potter brought a third-party bad faith action against the insurer, Progressive. The Potters were involved in an automobile accident with Progressive’s insured, under an automotive liability policy with bodily injury limits of $10,000 per person. The Potters sued Progressive’s insured and ultimately served a proposal for settlement, pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 768.79, totaling $125,000. The insured accepted the proposal, a final judgment was entered, and the Potters sued Progressive for bad faith.
Continue Reading Judgment (Still) Means Judgment: The Eleventh Circuit Extends McNamara to a Proposal for Settlement
Consent Judgments
Judgment Means Judgment: The Eleventh Circuit Reestablishes that a Consensual Excess Settlement Can be Used to Satisfy Causation Prong of Bad Faith
By Andrea DeField & S. Alice Weeks on
Posted in Consent Judgments, Florida
In a recently published opinion, the Eleventh Circuit revisited – and departed from – its prior, unpublished decision in Cawthorn v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., 791 F. App’x 60 (11th Cir. 2019). The Court held that a final judgment that exceeds all available liability policy limits, whether such judgment results from a jury verdict or a consensual settlement, constitutes an “excess judgment” that can be used to satisfy the causation requirement of an insurer bad faith claim in Florida.
Continue Reading Judgment Means Judgment: The Eleventh Circuit Reestablishes that a Consensual Excess Settlement Can be Used to Satisfy Causation Prong of Bad Faith