21st Century Insurance v. Superior Court

In this matter we find that plaintiff’s efforts to pursue essentially a “bad faith” action as assignee of the insured must fail. Accordingly, petitioner, the insurer in question, is entitled to the summary judgment sought below.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The underlying litigation is one for personal injury and wrongful death. Defendant Cy Tapia, a teenager living with his aunt and grandmother, was driving a vehicle that crashed, inflicting severe and eventually fatal injuries on his passenger, Cory Driscoll.

Before his death, Driscoll and his mother filed an action for damages on March 6, 2007. The parties soon established that the vehicle driven by Tapia was owned by his grandfather and that Tapia was entitled to $100,000 in liability coverage under an auto policy issued to Melissa McGuire (Tapia’s sister), which listed the vehicle as an insured vehicle and listed Tapia as the driver of the vehicle. This policy was issued by petitioner and defendant in this action, 21st Century Insurance Company (21st Century). In October 2007, 21st Century offered to settle the action for the policy limits of the McGuire policy — that is, $100,000.

However, plaintiff also believed that…