Graciano

Plaintiff Sonia Graciano suffered severe injuries when she was struck by a car driven by Saul Ayala (Saul). Saul was insured by a policy issued by defendant California Automobile Insurance Company (CAIC), which had policy limits of $50,000. Less than three weeks after Graciano’s attorney first contacted CAIC alleging Graciano was injured by one of CAIC’s insureds, during which time Graciano misidentified both the name of the driver and the applicable insurance policy, CAIC completed its investigation of the accident, identified the correct insurance policy and driver, and tried to settle Graciano’s claim against Saul by delivering to Graciano’s attorney a “full policy limits offer.”

Graciano did not accept CAIC’s full policy limits offer and, in the present action, asserts CAIC and its parent and affiliated companies (together Defendants) acted in bad faith, based on an alleged “wrongful failure to settle.” Graciano argues CAIC could have and should have earlier discovered the facts, and should have made the full policy limits offer more quickly. The jury found in favor of Graciano and this appeal followed.

CAIC asserts that, as a matter of law, there was no evidence to…