Coe

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company appeals from a judgment, entered upon a jury verdict, holding it liable to its insured’s assignee for bad faith refusal to settle the assignee’s wrongful death claim against the insured.

Appellant had insured Sten S. Strandberg and Bonnie Jean Strand-berg against liability up to $25,000 arising from the use of a described automobile. While Mrs. Strandberg was driving the insured automobile on a highway in Humboldt County, it collided with a truck driven by Richard Coe. The circumstances of the collision were such as to indicate that Mrs. Strandberg was negligently responsible for it. Richard Coe received severe injuries.

Coe had been driving in the course and scope of his employment by McLaughlin Plumbing & Heating Company, whose workers’ compensation insurance was carried by the State Compensation Insurance Fund. The employer immediately reported the accident to the fund, at its Eureka office. The information reported included the facts of appellant’s liability coverage on the Strandberg vehicle and that the matter was being handled by Percy Moore, appellant’s “field claims adjuster” in Eureka. On the same day, the fund…