Punitive Damages Kicked from Plaintiff’s Bad Faith Complaint

Straus Meyers, LLP recently prevailed in defending a bad faith complaint in what amounted to three attempts by plaintiff to amend plaintiff’s complaint.  The first-party-insured-plaintiff alleged breach of contract and bad faith against its insurer for its failure to pay on a claim in which the insured claimed his vehicle was stolen.  Each of the five (5) versions of plaintiff’s complaint contained a prayer and other language supporting punitive damages.  We moved to strike punitive damages from three successive complaints.  The court granted the first two motions with leave to amend.  After the most recent motion to strike, the court granted the motion to strike without leave to amend.  The court agreed that plaintiff did not successfully plead corporate ratification under CA Civil Code Section 3294(b).  In previous complaints, plaintiff plead that an adjuster denied the claim.  The court found that plaintiff’s attempts and suggestions for amending its pleading to state that the adjuster had discretion to dispose of the claim, and was therefore a managing agent of the insurance company under the case Major v. Western Home Insurance Co. (2009) 169 Ca.App.4th 1197, would be a sham in view of its previous allegations that a supervisor, not an adjuster, had discretion to dispose of the claim.