Morrell Construction, Inc., an Idaho Corporation v. Home Insurance Company, a Foreign Corporation

In Morrell Constr., Inc. v. Home Ins. Co., 899 F.2d 875 (9th Cir.1990), Morrell appealed the district court’s decision granting summary judgment in favor of Home Insurance Co. on Morrell’s claim that Home Insurance exercised bad faith by refusing to investigate and pursue settlement negotiations before suit was filed against Mor-rell by a third party. Because the dispute involved issues of first impression under Idaho tort law, we certified the following two questions to the Idaho Supreme Court:

The Idaho Supreme Court determined that it was inappropriate to accept the questions because of that Court’s crowded docket, and it rejected the certification of questions pursuant to Rule 12.1(c) of the Idaho Appellate Rules. Morrell Constr., Inc. v. Home Ins. Co., Ref. No. 90S-79, Sup.Ct. No. 99215 (Idaho Supreme Court May 18, 1990) (unpublished). We must how resolve the questions according to our perception of Idaho law, Morrell, 899 F.2d at 878 , and we affirm.

We set out the facts giving rise to this dispute in our previous decision. See id. at 876 . We also traced the evolution of Idaho’s bad faith cause of action, and we noted that both commentators and courts from other states…