AIG could pay dearly for refusing to budge on a claim settlement offer of $2.65 million for nearly a year after receiving estimates that a jury would likely award the claimant $7.5 million for her injuries.
A jury did eventually award $7.5 million in damages and the plaintiff then sued AIG again for not making a prompt and fair settlement offer before the case went to trial. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that whether AIG should have been more prompt with a fair offer should be decided by a jury. The appeals court vacated a federal district court’s grant of summary judgment on that issue to AIG.
In January 2015, when she was 34 years old, Paula Appleton sustained life-altering injuries in a car accident. Appleton was the passenger in a car that her fiancé, now husband, was driving when a pickup truck struck their car from behind and propelled it underneath the tractor-trailer in front of them, nearly flattening their vehicle. Emergency responders had to extricate Appleton from the car and then transport her to a hospital via helicopter. There, Appleton was diagnosed with severe injuries, including a hemorrhage, pelvic …