Bamford, Inc. v. Regent Ins. Co.

After a Bamford employee caused a car accident resulting in third party injuries, Bamford requested that its insurer, Regent, settle the claims within Bamford's policy limits. Regent did not settle the claims, the case proceeded to trial, and a jury returned a verdict in excess of Bamford’s policy limits. Bamford filed suit against Regent, alleging that Regent acted in bad faith in not settling the claims. The jury returned a verdict for Bamford. In this appeal, Regent challenged the district court's denial of its post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial. The court affirmed, holding that Bamford presented sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that Regent acted in bad faith in failing to settle the third party claims within the policy limits. Based on the same record of evidence, the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Regent’s motion for a new trial predicated on the sufficiency of the evidence. Finally, the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in giving the challenged jury instructions, which were nearly identical to instructions approved by the Nebraska Supreme Court, and must be read as a whole with all of the instructions. View "Bamford, Inc. v. Regent Ins. Co." on Justia Law