Dale v. Guaranty National Insurance Company

Certiorari to the Colorado Court of Appeals EN BANC JUDGMENT REVERSED AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS CHIEF JUSTICE VOLLACK concurs in part and Dissents in part. We granted certiorari to review an unpublished court of appeals' decision rejecting the appeal of petitioner Linda Dale (Dale) and affirming the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of respondent, Guaranty National Insurance Company (GNIC), on Dale's claim of bad faith breach of an insurance contract.1 The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's holding that the doctrine of collateral estoppel applied to an arbitration panel's determination that GNIC's misconduct was not willful and wanton and, as a result, precluded further litigation on the issue of bad faith. We reverse and clarify the relationship between the contract claim of willful and wanton misconduct by an insurance company under section 10-4-708, 4A C.R.S. (1987 & 1990 Supp.), and the tort claim of insurance bad faith.