Goddard v. Farmers Ins. Co. of Oregon

This appeal is the latest chapter in remarkably protracted litigation that began with an auto accident in 1987, in which plaintiff’s decedent, Marc Goddard, died following a collision with a pickup truck driven by a drunk driver, John Munson. Munson was driving a vehicle insured by defendant Farmers Insurance Company of Oregon. In this case, a jury awarded plaintiff, as assignee of Munson’s bad faith claim against defendant, $863,274 in compensatory damages and $20,718,576 in punitive damages, based on defendant’s conduct in handling the wrongful death claim against Munson and in failing to…