Burnett v. Government Employee Insurance Company

I dissent. While I agree with the court’s observation that a liability insurer can assume a “new and independent” duty to a third party claimant while adjusting a claim, as we recognized in O.K. Lumber v. Providence Washington Insurance Co.,1 there is nothing in this case on which to find that such a duty was ever assumed. The plaintiffs allegations, taken as true, simply show an insurer acting—reasonably or otherwise—in the course of its contractual duty to minimize its insured’s exposure to liability. Allowing the possibility of a “new and independent” duty on these facts expands the law in…