Summary: An Auto Insurance Expert Witness and a Bad Faith Expert Witness were allowed to testify in part regarding a vehicle collision that led to bad faith management of insurance claims.
Facts: This case McGee v. Zurich American Insurance Company, Case No. 2:2017cv04024 (United States District Court For The District of Arizona) involves bad faith insurance claims. The Plaintiff, James McGee, claims he was injured in a car crash with the Defendant, Elizabeth Foutz. At the time of the crash, Foutz was driving a car which was provided by her employer AAA Landscaping and had insurance covered by Zurich American Insurance Company. Following the crash, details of the collision including the Defendant’s auto insurance were provided to AAA to which Zurich responded by claiming her insurance did not cover the vehicle she was driving. The question of tort damages was also brought up by the Plaintiff concerning AAA landscaping and the insurance company’s acknowledgment of the facts of the case. Beyond these claims, the Defendant brought forth their own analysis of the insurance company’s practices with the help of Charles Hewitt, a qualified Auto Insurance Expert Witness. The Plaintiff also requested Bad Faith Expert Witness Frederick Berry Jr. to testify about standards within the insurance industry. The Plaintiff sought to exclude Hewitt’s testimony and the Defendant tried to exclude Berry from speaking during the lawsuit.
Discussion: Hewitt offered four opinions on the case that he published in a report. In this report, Hewitt argued that Zurich acted within normal industry standards when discrediting Foutz’s insurance claims because of a DUI she received in the past. Hewitt reaffirmed that proper procedure was used when disclosing this information to the company. His ultimate argument was that Foutz breached some aspects of Arizona law and company policy in terms of loaned cars and therefore the insurance company acted accordingly. The Plaintiff acknowledged that Hewitt’s testimony is of a qualified expert opinion, but lacks additional evidence or information relating to the trier of fact that would further the Defendant’s case.