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Early Sullivan Obtains Defense Verdict in Jury Trial for First American Title Insurance
Scott Gizer, Lisa Boswell and Jessica Detering prevailed on behalf of Early Sullivan client First American Title Insurance Company in a bad faith action arising out of a neighbor dispute in the City of Sierra Madre. Following a two-week trial, the jury delivered a unanimous verdict in favor of First American. The lawsuit centered around a dispute between Plaintiffs and their neighbors, both of which were insured by First American, over certain improvements of the neighbors that encroached onto Plaintiffs’ property.
Plaintiffs sued their neighbors to have the encroachments removed and the neighbors tendered a claim to First American, which was accepted and counsel appointed to defend against the claim as well as assert a cross-complaint for an easement. Plaintiffs then tendered the defense of the cross-complaint to First American, which First American accepted, but elected to pay Plaintiffs for the loss of the property at issue as opposed to defending the claim. Plaintiffs argued that First American’s decision to defend one insured and payout the other was improper as it allegedly favored one insured over the other.
Mr. Gizer, Ms. Boswell and Ms. Detering put on evidence that when First American insures both sides of a dispute each claim is handled independently to avoid any claims of favoritism and that such was the case with Plaintiffs and their neighbors. The Early Sullivan trial team put on further evidence that electing to defend the neighbors and making a payout to the Plaintiffs was reasonable based on the facts of each claim since it was unlikely that the Plaintiffs would be able to prevail against their neighbors. Further, First American at various times encouraged Plaintiffs to settle their dispute and not continue with litigation for this exact reason.
Ultimately, Plaintiffs lost their lawsuit against their neighbors, but blamed First American for the result seeking damages of more than $1.5 million. After hearing all the evidence, the jury deliberated for two hours and found against Plaintiffs on all claims. The case is Cesar Romero and Tatana Romero v. First American Title Insurance Company, Los Angeles County Case No. BC656649.