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Vazquez v. Allstate Insurance Co.5/2/2000
Appeal by defendant from judgment entered 29 September 1998 by Judge Forrest D. Bridges in Mecklenburg County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 21 February 2000.
This case concerns the amount of damages that the plaintiff may recover from the defendant insurance company in his claim for unfair and deceptive trade practices.
On 24 January 1996, Tomas Mejia was a passenger in a van driven by Oscar Trejo. Mr. Trejo's van was involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle driven by James Eric Brevard, an uninsured motorist. Mr. Mejia died in the accident and his administrator is the plaintiff in this action.
At the time of the accident, Mejia and Trejo both had insurance policies with defendant Allstate Insurance Company. Each policy provided uninsured motorist coverage in the amount of $25,000. The plaintiff commenced this action alleging that defendant Allstate improperly refused to pay under the policies. Plaintiff sought damages for breach of contract and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
The trial court trifurcated the trial. Phase I dealt with the wrongful death claim against Mr. Brevard. Phase II addressed plaintiff's claim for unfair and deceptive trade practices. Finally, in Phase III, the jury considered plaintiff's claim for punitive damages.
At the end of Phase I the jury determined that Mr. Brevard's negligence caused Mejia's death. Additionally, the jury concluded that the plaintiff sustained $104,003.00 in damages. After the verdict, defendant stipulated that the plaintiff was entitled to payment under any Allstate insurance policy in effect at the time of the accident. Later, the trial court ruled that the plaintiff could stack the uninsured motorist coverage of the Trejo and Mejia policies.
Following the presentation of evidence in Phase II, the trial court submitted a set of special interrogatories to the jury. In answering these questions, the jurors concluded that the defendant had refused to settle the plaintiff's claim in bad faith. Furthermore, the jury determined that the defendant had failed to adjust the plaintiff's loss fairly, follow its own standards, act reasonably in communications, conduct a reasonable investigation and to effect a fair settlement in good faith. The trial court used these answers as support for its ruling that the defendant had committed unfair and deceptive trade practices. The jurors concluded that defendant had damaged plaintiff in the amount of $29,160 for the acts constituting unfair and deceptive trade practices and for the defendant's bad faith refusal to settle. In Phase III, the jurors denied plaintiff's claim for punitive damages.
After the completion of Phase III, the trial court determined that the three jury awards were mutually inconsistent and put the plaintiff to an election of remedies. The trial court made the following relevant conclusions of law:
1. That from the orders of the Court and the jury verdicts as recited above, the Plaintiff is entitled to recover under one of the three causes of action:
A. $50,000.00 plus costs and expert witness fees upon a cause of action for breach of contract.
B. $29,160.00 upon a cause of action for bad faith.
C. $29,160.00 trebled for unfair and deceptive trade practices by Allstate Insurance Company, plus costs, expert witness fees and attorneys fees.
3. The plaintiff has elected a recovery upon a cause of action for unfair and deceptive trade practices, specifically $29,160.00 trebled to $87,480.00, plus costs, expert witness fees and attorney fees as is herein after ordered.
Additionally, the trial court awarded the pl
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