Appellate Division refuses
to apply 'Rova Farms' to first party UM claims
In the well known Rova Farms decision, the New
Jersey Supreme Court held that a liability insurer
who in bad faith refuses to accept a plaintiff's
reasonable settlement demand, will be liable for the
amount of any judgment above and beyond the insured's
policy limits. In an opinion approved for publication
on June 30, 2008, the Appellate Division held that a
UM carrier cannot be exposed to Rova Farms liability
in refusing to settle with an insured. The court in
Taddei v. State Farm, was faced with a case where the
plaintiff/insured made a settlement demand after
non-binding UM arbitration of $87,500. A jury
eventually awarded the plaintiff $2.6 million.
However, the trial judge molded the verdict to the
$100,000 policy limit. On appeal , the plaintiff
argued that the carrier had acted in bad faith, in
light of the refusal to settle. The Appellate
Division was un-persuaded, reasoning that the Rova
Farms bad faith model is inapplicable in the UM and
UIM context because the insured is the claimant and,
therefore, not exposed to an award in excess of the
policy limit.