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August 25, 2014

On July 20, 2012, a three-judge panel of Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal released what, on its face, appeared to be a relatively innocuous opinion in Geico General Insurance Company v. Bottini . The Bottini appeal arose as a result of Geico’s appeal of a jury verdict in the amount of $30,872,266 rendered against it in an uninsured/underinsured motorist (‘‘UIM”) case. Consistent with precedent, the trial court entered a judgment against Geico in the amount of the policy’s limit of liability, $50,000. Because the huge verdict had the effect of fixing the plaintiff’s damages in a subsequent bad faith case, Geico naturally sought review of that verdict. The panel opinion concluded simply, ‘‘Based on the evidence presented, we are satisfied that even if Geico were correct that errors may have affected the jury’s computation of damages, in the context of this case and the amount of the judgment, any such errors were harmless.”

Insurance Bad Faith