Confidential
Settlement – $150,000Judge
Court
L.A. Superior Central
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
David M. Phillips
(Mavredakis, Cranert & Crawford)
Experts
Plaintiff
Joe Salgueria
(technical)
Defendant
Boyd A. Veenstra
(technical)
Matthew A. Jackson
(technical)
Facts
The plaintiff brought a bad faith breach of insurance action against his auto insurance company. On May 30,
2000, the plaintiff was involved in a hit and run accident that damaged the front grill and hood of his 1984
BMV. The plaintiff submitted a claim to his insuance company for the damages. He had recently put $6000 of
improvements into the car, installing a new engine, interior, suspension, tires and a computer system.
The insurance company determined the BMW had only a salvage value of $250 and refused to repair the car.
The plaintiff claimed that, in refusing to repair the car, the insurance company relied on false information that
the car had been in five prior accidents, and that when the plaintiff pointed out that this information was false,
the insurance company claimed that the true information was not important and did not change the value of the
car.
Without notice to the plaintiff, the insurance company notified the DMV that the car was
"salvage," which reduced the value of the car by one-half. The damaged car was later sold for
$2,500. During litigation, the car was appraised at $4,934.
Result
In the first phase of the trial, the jury awarded the plaintiff $300 in damages for breach of contract and $40,000 in damages for bad faith. The jury determined that the defendant acted with malice and the plaintiff was entitled to putitive damages. Before the second phase of the trial, the parties settled the case for $150,000.
Deliberation
three hours
Poll
10-2 (breach of contract); 10-2 (bad faith)
Length
four hours
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