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Torts Keyed to Franklin
Pavia v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.
Citation:
82 N.Y.2d 445, 626 N.E.2d 24, 605 N.Y.S.2d 208 (N.Y. 1993)Facts
Sixteen-year-old Rosato drove Pavia and another youth in a car belonging to his mother that was insured by State Farm with a $100,000 liability limit. Rosato’s permit did not authorize her to drive at night. Rosato took a corner too fast and collided into a car driven by Amerosa while trying to avoid a double parked car on the corner. Pavia was seriously injured.
Investigations conducted by State Farm concluded that the Rosatos were likely to be held liable for the accident but that the record supported possible defenses, such as emergency (because the double parked car may have been backing up) and assumption of risk (because drugs were involved).
Two and a half years later, State Farm offered the fully policy limit of $100,000. Pavia rejected the offer as “too late.”
The jury returned a plaintiff’s verdict for $6,322,000, attributing 85% of the fault to the Rosatos and the remaining 15% to Amerosa. The Supreme Court reduced the verdict upon State Farm’s motion to $5,000,000. The Appellate Division modified the judgment by further reducing the verdict to $3,880,000.
The Rosatos subsequently assigned all causes of action they might have against State Farm to Pavia and commenced a joint bad faith action against State Farm, alleging that State Farm acted in bad faith by failing to accept Pavia’s policy limits settlement offer within a reasonable time despite the clear liability and obvious damages exceeding the policy limits.
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