Shoop | A Professional Law Corporation Obtains $5 Million Dollar Verdict Against Peerless Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Company

PR Web

Beverly Hills, CA (PRWEB) April 23, 2013

On April 12, 2013, the attorneys at SHOOP | A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION secured a $5,036,489.00 verdict against Peerless Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Company, for bad faith claims handling practices. Attorneys Don Liddy and David Shoop tried the case to a Riverside County, California, jury over a period of three weeks. The jury found Peerless liable for insurance bad faith and awarded punitive damages in the amount of $3,500,000.00 (Riverside Superior Court, Case Number INC 1109263).

In California, insurance companies owe their insureds a duty of good faith and fair dealing. In first-party policies of property insurance, the law requires the insurance companies to investigate the damage to the property, determine if the property damage is covered under the terms of the policy and, if covered, the insurance company must promptly pay the proper value for the property damage.

The case of Palm Springs Pump, Inc., vs. Peerless Insurance Company (Riverside Superior Court, Case Number INC 1109263) involved just such a policy of insurance. Palm Springs Pump, Inc., a third-generation, family owned business, purchased a water well drilling rig for approximately $700,000.00. Palm Springs Pump paid Peerless Insurance Company$38,000.00 per year to provide an all-risk policy of insurance to cover the drill rig, if damaged. According to Riverside Superior Court, Case Number INC 1109263, on December 9, 2010, the drill rig catastrophically failed under normal operations, and Palm Springs Pump, Inc., timely submitted notice of the loss and requested that Peerless Insurance Company ship the rig to an out-of-state manufacturer for extensive repairs and for further inspection of additional damaged items on the rig.

According to Riverside Superior Court, Case Number INC 1109263, the jury found that Peerless Insurance Company refused to ship the rig to the manufacturer under a reservation of rights for inspection and repair. The jury also found that Peerless Insurance Company delayed providing its insured a coverage opinion for nearly six months and unreasonably delayed full payment under the policy of insurance for nearly a year. As a result, Palm Springs Pump, Inc., suffered in excess of a million dollars in damage. Palm Springs Pump, Inc., was forced to retain the services of SHOOP | A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION to receive its policy benefits. SHOOP | A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION thereafter sued Peerless Insurance Company for breach of contract and for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The resulting jury verdict was in excess of $5 million dollars.

Don Liddy and David Shoop are preeminent trial lawyers and have successfully tried multi-million dollar cases to jury verdict. They also know how insurance companies defend their cases, and they know the strategies insurance companies employ to deprive their insureds of benefits due under the policy. If you have experienced a delay in the payment of policy benefits, or if an insurance company refuses to step up to the plate and cover your losses, then you should call us today for a free consultation to discuss your legal rights. THIS IS YOUR FIRM.