Philadelphia, Jan. 20. A Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge has recommended that the Pa. Superior Court affirm her dismissal of breach of contract and bad faith claims filed against Progressive Insurance Company. In an opinion written pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) in Racioppi v. Progressive Ins. Co.,2015 Phila. Ct. Com. Pl. LEXIS 415 , the Court dismissed the Plaintiff’s claims for UM benefits under her Progressive auto policy following an automobile accident. The Plaintiff had previously collected policy limits of the tortfeasor, Insured by Geico.
The Court held that both the breach of contract and bad faith counts suffered from the same fatal defect: The Plaintiff failed to proved that she paid for a policy which was in force at the time of the collision. While the Court conceded there were circumstances in which a bad faith claim could proceed in the absence of a breach of contract claim, it found that such circumstances were not presented by the Plaintiff’s UM claim at issue:
Since the breach of contract claim is without evidence, this component of the bad faith claim must immediately be rejected; Appellee-Defendants cannot have failed to pay in reckless disregard of the contract when Appellant-Plaintiff fails to offer any evidence that there was a contract between the parties on the date of the accident.
The Court dismissed the claims by way of a motion for summary judgment filed by Progressive.
Racioppi v. Progressive Ins. Co., 2015 Phila. Ct. Com. Pl. LEXIS 415 (Shreeves-Johns, J.)
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