Smith v. Harleysville Insurance

OPINION OF THE COURT

Here, as in D’Ambrosio v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company, 494 Pa. 501, 431 A.2d 966 (1981), an insured seeks to recover punitive damages for an insurer’s alleged “bad faith” conduct in refusing to fulfill its *517obligations under the parties’ contract of insurance. The Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia sustained the insurer’s preliminary objections in the nature of a demurrer and dismissed those counts of the insured’s complaint seeking punitive damages. The insured failed to seek leave to amend, and a panel of the Superior Court unanimously…