Cynthia Dyches Linthicum v. Mendakota Insurance Company

687 F. App'x 854
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 3, 2017
Docket16-16593 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished

This text of 687 F. App'x 854 (Cynthia Dyches Linthicum v. Mendakota Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cynthia Dyches Linthicum v. Mendakota Insurance Company, 687 F. App'x 854 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

*855 PER CURIAM:

Cynthia and Christopher Linthicum appeal the summary judgment in favor of Mendakota Insurance Company, which issued an automobile liability insurance policy to Bobby James Hopkins II that was in effect when he struck and killed the Lin-thicums’ 11-year-old son. The Linthicums, as Hopkins’s assignees, sued Mendakota Insurance for its alleged bad faith in failing to accept a time-limited offer to settle their wrongful death claim for the limits of Hopkins’s insurance policy. The district court ruled that Mendakota Insurance did not act in bad faith because the offer left unresolved a potential claim for the child’s pain and suffering. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Hopkins’s wife reported the accident to Mendakota Insurance, who assigned the case to an adjuster, Kate Moulton. Moul-ton, with approval from her supervisor, set a pending reserve for the maximum amount of Hopkins’s policy, $25,000, and recorded that liability was “probable.” Moulton notified Hopkins of his potential liability for any amounts in excess of his policy limits.

The accident involved, in the words of the Linthicums’ expert witness, “bad facts.” Hopkins, who was driving while intoxicated, struck the Linthicums’ son while he was crossing the street with his older brother, fled the scene, and took his ear to a body shop for repair. According to the Linthicums, their son lived “under an hour” after the accident.

The Linthicums’ retained an attorney, Tom Bordeaux, who sent a letter of representation to Mendakota Insurance. On July 25, 2008, Moulton called Bordeaux who, Moulton recorded, “stated he [had] other avenues to pursue refgarding] ins[uranee] (IE dram shop), so [he was] not ... ready to accept [Hopkins’s policy] limits quite yet” and would “be filing [a] claim on [the brother’s] behalf.” Bordeaux’s notes of the conversation stated that he would “at some point ... be making a demand for the policy limits but ... [was] waiting to see about the criminal action.”

On August 7, 2008, Moulton mailed Bordeaux a letter that disclosed the limits of liability and contained a copy of Hopkins’s insurance policy. On September 29, 2008, Moulton called Bordeaux and left a voice message, but he did not return the call.

On October 8, 2008, Moulton called Bordeaux. Moulton recorded that Bordeaux agreed to review and “sign [a] limited release.” Bordeaux’s notes reflected that he had asked “whether this is simply going to be a matter of [him] writing a letter and them sending the checks in these claims (plural), and [Moulton] said yes”; that he inquired if he “could settle [the child’s] case—which is both a wrongful death claim and an estate claim—without getting the estate probated”; and that he “need[ed] to think this through thoroughly ... [to] make sure that we’re not sliding one claim over the other” or “just end up paying the funeral home and the hospital.”

The next day, Moulton sent Bordeaux a letter by facsimile that tendered the limits of Hopkins’s policy “to settle the case of Cynthia and Christopher Linthicum, Natural Parents of ..., A Minor, Deceased.” Moulton also sent a release for the parents to sign.

Moulton remained in contact with Bordeaux. According to Moulton’s notes, she spoke with Bordeaux on January 21, 2009, and he said that the “case is ‘on hold’ pending the criminal prosecution” and he “[had] no info on [a] trial date.” Moulton left messages on Bordeaux’s voice mail on March 17, June' 22, and August 12. On August 27, 2009, Moulton spoke with Bor *856 deaux’s assistant, who stated that Hopkins’s trial had been continued and that Bordeaux “[would] not be able to conclude matters pending [the] outcome of ... trial.” Moulton also spoke with Bordeaux’s assistant on December 4, 2009, who stated that the trial date “[had] been pushed out further” to “sometime in [20]10.”

On May 12, 2010, Bordeaux mailed Moulton a letter “demanding] the limits of [the] policy .,. [for] $25,000.00, in full and final settlement of [the Linthicums’] claims for the wrongful death of their child” in exchange for the “execution of] a full release of ... all claims for the wrongful death....” Bordeaux demanded notice, “in writing, by 5 p.m. EDT on May 24, 2010, of .,, acceptance,” or the offer would be “automatically withdrawn as of that time” and a “suit [filed] against Mr. Hopkins.” Mendakota Insurance received the letter on May 17, 2010. Moulton did not respond to the offer.

On June 15, 2010, Moulton received a copy of the Linthicums’ complaint, which sought damages for the wrongful death of their son. Moulton called Bordeaux and told his assistant that Mendakota Insurance had already tendered the policy limits for the claim.

On June 16, 2010, Bordeaux mailed Moulton a letter that stated she had failed to respond to the “very specific proposal to settle” and, in the meantime, “the two year statute of limitations [had expired] on the wrongful death claim.” Bordeaux acknowledged that Moulton had “some 20 months ago” offered to “settle significantly more than the wrongful death .claim” because the release included “any and "all claims, demands, damages, costs, expenses, loss of services, actions and causes of actions” belonging to the Linthicums for “all personal injury, disability, property damage, loss or damages of any kind” and “demanded indemnification as to ‘any additional sum of money .,. pa[id] on account of the injuries to’ ” their son. The “letter of May 12, 2010,” Bordeaux explained, “proposed to settle the wrongful death claims only.”

The Linthicums agreed to settle the wrongful death action for $1.2 million, and in exchange Hopkins assigned to the Lin-thicums any claim that he might have against Mendakota Insurance. The insurance company paid the Linthicums the limits of Hopkins’s insurance policy.

The Linthicums filed a complaint in a Georgia court that Mendakota Insurance was liable for “negligently, carelessly, unreasonably, foolishly, stubbornly, litigiously, or in bad faith failing or refusing to settle [their] claim for the wrongful death of their child within the applicable limits of [Hopkins’s insurance] policy.” The company removed the action to district court and moved for summary judgment. The Linthi-cums moved for partial summary judgment.

The district court granted the motion of Mendakota Insurance and denied the Lin-thicums’ motion. The district court ruled that the company did not act in bad faith because the Linthicums’ “counter-offer to accept the policy limits in exchange for settling only [their] claim for wrongful death” would not “fully settle [their] claims against Mr. Hopkins.” The counter-offer, the district court determined, exposed Hopkins to potential liability for the child’s pain and suffering.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a summary judgment de novo. Mesa v. Clarendon Nat'l Ins. Co., 799 F.3d 1353, 1358 (11th Cir. 2015). Summary judgment is appropriate when “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judg *857 ment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P.

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Bluebook (online)
687 F. App'x 854, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cynthia-dyches-linthicum-v-mendakota-insurance-company-ca11-2017.