Plaintiffs do not need to provide so-called “smoking gun” evidence of ill will to bring bad-faith claims against insurance carriers, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in an issue of first impression for the court.
Ruling Sept. 28 in Rancosky v. Washington National Insurance, the high court adopted the two-pronged test used for establishing bad-faith claims that the state Superior Court outlined in the 1994 decision Terletsky v. Prudential Property and Casualty Insurance. As part of its decision, the Supreme Court rejected arguments from an insurance carrier that, as part of the requirements under that test, plaintiffs need to prove that a carrier was motivated by self-interest or ill-will.
