Insurer Did Not Act in "Bad Faith" by Delaying Payment of a Settlement Pending Determination of Medicare's Conditional Payment Amount
In Wilson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, No. 3:10-CV-256-H, 2011 WL 2378190 [2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63430] (W.D. Ky., June 15, 2011), the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled that an insurance carrier did not act in "bad faith" by delaying payment of a settlement pending its determination of Medicare's reimbursable conditional payment amount.
In Wilson, the plaintiff filed an uninsured motorist claim which the insurer agreed to settle for the policy limits. However, the insurer delayed tendering payment until after it obtained Medicare's reimbursable conditional payment amount. The plaintiff sued the insurer claiming that the insurer's delay in paying the settlement violated Kentucky's bad faith law. For the reasons more fully discussed below, the court found that the insurer's actions did not constitute bad faith under Kentucky law.
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