Insurer Fell for “Bad Faith Set Up” by Partially Accepting Settlement Offer

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When a plaintiff has serious injuries and the defendant has limited insurance limits the plaintiffs’ lawyer will issue a settlement offer with stringent conditions that must be accepted as demanded or the plaintiff will claim that the insurer acted in bad faith. In Ligon v. Hu, No. A21A1296, Court of Appeals of Georgia, Fifth Division (March 11, 2022) Hu’s insurer sent a check as demanded but failed to fulfill all of the conditions set by plaintiff’s counsel’s offer to settle. After the money was sent back and Ligon sued, Hu sucessfuly moved the trial court to enforce the settlement agreement. Ligon appealed claiming that there was no agreement.

American Family delivered a $100,000 check, a release, and other purported acceptance documents to the Ligons. Thereafter, the Ligons returned the $100,000 check and documents to American Family, and also sent a letter to American Family stating that it had not complied with all the terms of the offer and had therefore rejected the offer.

Since the release in this case was not identical with the terms of the offer American Family violated the express terms of the offer and the parties did not reach a binding settlement agreement. Consequently, the trial court erred in granting Hu’s motion to enforce a settlement agreement.

ZALMA OPINION

An insurer faced with a policy limits demand that it believes would be a fair and reasonable settlement on behalf of its insured must either accept the offer as made or work with the plaintiffs’ counsel to reach an agreement as to the terms and conditions of the release. T American Family fell into the bad faith set up trap and can only hope, at trial, the judgment is equal to or less than the $100,000 policy limit.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

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