Jackson v. American Equity Insurance Co.

90 P.3d 136, 2004 Alas. LEXIS 41, 2004 WL 721683
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 2004
DocketS-10328
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 90 P.3d 136 (Jackson v. American Equity Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. American Equity Insurance Co., 90 P.3d 136, 2004 Alas. LEXIS 41, 2004 WL 721683 (Ala. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

EASTAUGH, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

This ease presents questions about the duty a liability insurer owes its insured when personal injury plaintiffs make a policy limits settlement demand. A jury ultimately returned a special verdict for the liability insurer following a trial of the insured’s bad faith claim against the insurer. We hold that it was not error, under the circumstances of this case, to decline to give the trial jury a special verdict form that would have allowed the jury to find that the insurer breached a duty to give the insured an assurance that it would pay any judgment even if it exceeded the insured’s policy limits. We also hold that the insured did not preserve his assertion that the court misinstructed the jury about the duties an insurer owes its insured, and *139 hold that it was not plain error to give the instruction. We therefore affirm the judgment.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Laura and Dale Jackson sustained serious bodily injuries on July 25, 1997 when a trailer separated from its towing truck, crossed the centerline of the Seward Highway, and crashed into their car. The Jacksons settled their claims against the owner and operator of the trailer and truck, Great Alaska Lawn & Landscaping Company (Great Alaska) for about $1.2 million. This sum represented the policy limit of the Alaska National Insurance Company insurance policy covering Great Alaska, plus attorney’s fees and interest. Great Alaska also assigned the Jack-sons its contractual indemnity rights against James N. Evridge, the mechanic who installed the trailer hitch, and his company, Jim’s Mobile Equipment Repair. The Jacksons filed suit against Evridge. The Jacksons’ complaint against Evridge alleged negligence per se and strict products liability claims.

About a year before the Jacksons’ accident, Evridge, doing business as Jim’s Mobile Equipment Repair, had entered into a year-long contract with Great Alaska under which Evridge had repaired a number of Great Alaska’s trucks and trailers. The contract provided that Evridge was to procure insurance “to hold harmless Great Alaska Lawn and Landscaping ... from all liability and responsibility for work performed by Jim’s Mobile Equipment Repair.” Evridge had obtained a liability insurance policy through his insurance broker, CHI of Alaska, Inc. American Equity Insurance Company (AEI) issued Evridge’s policy. AEI’s policy covered Evridge at the time of the Jacksons’ accident.

After the Jacksons’ accident, AEI retained lawyer Patrick McKay to defend Evridge and AEI’s interests in the action brought by the Jacksons. AEI later hired Paul Stockier to replace McKay as Evridge’s defense counsel. Evridge also retained his own private counsel, Marshall Coryell.

The Jacksons and Evridge both moved for summary judgment on the negligence per se and strict liability claims. Evridge also moved for summary judgment on the issue of his liability for punitive damages. In July 1999 Superior Court Judge Karen L. Hunt dismissed the strict liability claims against Evridge, but allowed the Jacksons’ negligence per se claims brought under 13 Alaska Administrative Code (AAC) 04.002 (2003) and 13 AAC 04.005(a) (2003) and their punitive damages claims to proceed to trial.

The Jacksons made Evridge an offer of judgment under Alaska Civil Rule 68, offering to settle for the amount of his policy limits with AEI. Marshall Coryell, Evridge’s personal attorney, wrote several letters to AEI requesting that AEI either ■ accept the Jacksons’ offer of judgment and settle the case for no more than the policy limits, or, alternatively, issue an assurance to Evridge that AEI would pay any excess judgment against Evridge if the case went to trial. On three separate occasions, AEI informed Ev-ridge that it was not obligated to pay a judgment in excess of his policy limit of $1 million, and that it would not agree to provide Evridge written assurance that it would pay a judgment in excess of the policy limits if the case went to trial.

AEI, the Jacksons, Evridge, and their attorneys participated in a mediation in July 1999 at the office of the Jacksons’ attorney, Baker Brattain, LLC. AEI declined the Jacksons’ policy limits settlement offer, and instead offered to settle the Jacksons’ claims for $400,000. AEI had conducted an assessment of Evridge’s liability and concluded that the Jacksons’ claims were worth substantially less than the policy limits, and that Great Alaska, the owner of the truck and trailer involved in the Jacksons’ accident, was primarily at fault. The Jacksons refused AEI’s offer. Evridge’s personal attorney, Marshall Coryell, again asked AEI to issue a written assurance that AEI would cover a judgment against Evridge in excess of his policy limits if no settlement was reached and the case went to trial. Paul Stockier, the attorney AEI retained to defend Evridge, explained to Coryell and Evridge that if AEI lost the case and a judgment was actually entered for more than Evridge’s policy limits, it might be liable for the excess judgment but it was not willing to guarantee in writing prior to trial *140 that it would pay a judgment in excess of the policy limits. Roger Holmes, the mediator, testified that AEI intimated to Evridge and Coryell that:

[Wje’re not in the position ... of guaranteeing that, if you buy a million dollars worth of insurance, we’re going to pay three or four million. You didn’t pay a premium for that, so we’ll see what happens. We want to try the case, but we’re not going to put this in writing.

After the mediation attempt failed, Coryell wrote a letter to AEI’s legal counsel, William Wuestenfeld, advising him that Evridge was poised to enter into settlement negotiations with the Jacksons because of AEI’s refusal to provide him any assurance that it would cover any excess damages if the case went to trial. Coryell’s letter asserted that AEI’s conduct “is a textbook case of an insurer’s bad faith conduct against its insured.” (Emphasis omitted.)

On the eve of trial, Evridge entered into a settlement agreement with the Jacksons and confessed judgment for approximately $6 million. Per the settlement agreement, the Jacksons agreed to prosecute in Evridge’s name all of his claims against AEI at the Jacksons’ expense and discretion. Evridge agreed to pay over the proceeds of any recovery, less attorney’s fees, to the Jacksons in satisfaction of the amount of the confessed judgment. The Jacksons also agreed to “indemnify and hold Evridge harmless from ... [any] award of attorney fees or costs which might be asserted against him by [AEI] if the ease is lost.” Judge Hunt approved the settlement agreement.

In a letter to Coryell, AEI claimed that it was not bound by the settlement agreement because its policy “bars an insured from settling directly with the injured party without [its] consent so long as [they] are providing a defense.” AEI warned that “settlement of the case without [its] consent will constitute a breach of the insurance contract resulting in total forfeiture of coverage.”

The Jacksons hired Baker Brattain, LLC, the firm that represented the Jacksons in the prior case against Evridge, to litigate the bad faith suit on behalf of Evridge.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 P.3d 136, 2004 Alas. LEXIS 41, 2004 WL 721683, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-american-equity-insurance-co-alaska-2004.