award of $1 million in punitive damages was determined to be excessive by this Court; affirmance conditioned on appellees' filing a remittitur in the amount of $750,000, affording the plaintiff a judgment on the fraud count of $250,000
How later courts described this case
- award of $1 million in punitive damages was determined to be excessive by this Court; affirmance conditioned on appellees' filing a remittitur in the amount of $750,000, affording the plaintiff a judgment on the fraud count of $250,000
- reversed for failure to grant claims adjuster a directed verdict
- The jury awarded $1 million to the insured party against the insurer following its failure to pay a claim slightly over $2,000 under a medical policy
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
In order to explain that there is no inconsistency between concurring with the majority in this case and dissenting in Chavers [v. National Security Fire Cas. Ins. Co. , 405 So.2d 1 ], I would note that the facts in this case are greatly more probative of the tort of bad faith than are those in Chavers. I would also note that, although the trial court made no express determination as a matter of law that the facts in this case justified submitting to the jury the question of whether those facts satisfied the standards of recovery set forth in Chavers , and in this writer's dissent in Vincent v. Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc. , 373 So.2d 1054 (Ala. 1979), such determination was implicit in the trial court's submission of the case to the jury under proper instructions.