Iowa appellate court upholds $1 million award for commercial insurance bad faith
Deters v. USF Insurance Co. (Iowa App. 2011)
Decision: original.
Citing technicalities in insurance language later found by the jury to be objectively and subjectively baseless, an insurance company refused to pay under a commercial insurance company for the death of an executive and two employees who fell to their deaths while doing maintenance work on a TV tower. Trial court and appellate courts sustained the jury’s $1 million exemplary award given that actual or potential harm to insured ranged somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million, and perhaps higher.
Opinion by Presiding Judge Eisenhauer
Michael S. Jones and Benjamin R. Merrill for plaintiff
Mark McCormick and Margaret C. Callahan for defendant