Staples v. Allstate Insurance

¶1 This case requires us to examine an insured’s duty to cooperate with an insurer’s claim investigation. The petitioner, John Staples, had his insurance claim denied for failure to cooperate — namely, failure to submit to an examination under oath (EUO). Staples sued his insurer for bad faith and related causes of action, but the trial court dismissed the case on summary judgment. We examine the record and, after answering three questions about an insured’s duty to cooperate, conclude that genuine factual issues make summary judgment inappropriate in this case. In particular, the trial court…