The Utah Supreme Court has released its decision in UMIA v. Saltz, 2022 UT 21. This is an insurance bad-faith claim arising out of a insurance carrier’s failure to settle an underlying medical malpractice suit against its insured. (See my blog entry from August 2019 for a fuller description of the action.)
The original trial resulted in a judgment for compensatory damages against UMIA for $573,212.18. UMIA also had to reimburse Dr. Saltz for the $500,000 he paid out of his own funds to settle the claim with the plaintiff. Then there was a second judgment for attorneys’ fees and costs of $1,093,606.84, making a total of $2,166,819.02, if my math is correct.
That insurance bad faith judgment has now been affirmed by our Utah Supreme Court, along with an award to Dr. Saltz for his attorney fees on the appeal.
More significantly, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s decision dismissing the punitive damages claim. So the case now goes back to the trial court for further proceedings on that.
UMIA Insurance Co. v. Renaldo Saltz, M.D. et al., Civil #160907287 (Hon Keith Kelly).
You can read the lengthy decision for yourself for the details.
