Does a settlement with an insured silent as to any bad faith action constitute a waiver of the insured's right to sue the insurer for unfair claims practices?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Phillips v. Southern California Physicians Ins. Exchange, 205 Cal.App.3d 376, 229 Cal.Rptr. 527 (Cal. App. 1986):

Implicit in respondent's position, and in the trial court's ruling, is the proposition that as a matter of law, settlement with an insured silent as to any bad faith claims against the insurer, constitutes a waiver of the claimant's right to sue the insurer for unfair claims practices. Yet neither Rodriguez nor Trujillo discusses the issue of what facts establish a waiver or release of the right to bring a bad faith action. An opinion is not authority for a proposition not therein considered. (Valentine v. City of Oakland (1983) 148 Cal.App.3d 139, 149, 196 Cal.Rptr. 59.) It is clear to us that the release of a cause of action against an insured for that insured's negligence or fault does not, by reason of that release alone, insulate that insured's insurer from the consequences of its own separate tortious violations of section 790.03 of the Insurance Code, and its subdivisions.

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