Patrick v. Maryland Casualty Co.

Opinion

PETERSON, J.

Appellant Maryland Casualty Company challenges a judgment, in an action for bad faith handling of an insurance claim, assessing compensatory damages of $461,239 and punitive damages of $250,000 against it. In the published portions of this opinion, we conclude that the jury should have been instructed to consider the comparative fault of the parties in assessing damages, and that it was reversible error to refuse appellant’s preferred instructions on the issue. Further, there was no substantial evidence of malice, fraud, or oppression sufficient to warrant the imposition of punitive damages. In the unpublished portions of this opinion we address other issues peculiar to the facts of this case, which we conclude should not change the results reached in the published portions of the opinion. We, therefore, reverse the judgment and remand for a new trial under proper instructions.

[1569]

I. Facts and Procedural History

In 1982, Farris Patrick (hereafter respondent) had homeowners insurance on his house issued by appellant insurance company. He had made previous insurance claims for minor property damage, and was satisfied with appellant’s handling of those matters.

In December of 1982, during a series of storms, the wind pulled off shingles from a portion of respondent’s roof. He repaired the affected portion of the roof temporarily with tar paper to prevent further damage, and submitted a claim for the lost shingles to appellant.

Here, the parties’ versions of the relevant events begin to diverge. According to appellant insurance company, respondent was in no particular hurry about the claim, and did not communicate any sense of urgency to appellant about a need for quick payment on it. The claim was mailed to appellant, rather than being hand delivered or called in by telephone. Appellant contends that it acted reasonably promptly on the claim thereafter.

Respondent’s version, which supported the jury’s conclusion, is this: He told the insurance company employee he dealt with that water was coming in through holes in the roof, and that he needed the money from appellant insurance company to do necessary repairs. Appellant, however, forced him to get needless documentation and estimates which caused seemingly endless delays; then told him the check was in the mail; then told him the check must have been lost; and then delayed further in issuing another one. As a result of this delay, three months later in early March of 1983 after further water damage to his house, respondent called appellant again to complain that he still needed the money and that water damage to his house was continuing since the wind kept pulling the temporary tar paper cover off his roof. Respondent, who was a carpenter and who had done some work on the framing of roofs, then got up on the roof again to do the necessary repairs himself. He claimed that appellant insurance company’s employee had told him to do this work himself, although he also later admitted that doing the work himself might have been his own idea after all.