Mary Brodeur v. American Home Assurance…

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeals resolving Mary Brodeur's tort and statutory claims arising from the insurers' handling of her deceased husband's workers' compensation claim. Holding that bad faith tort claims accrue independently of a workers' compensation proceeding under the discovery rule, the court concluded the claims accrued no later than November 1, 1999, were barred by the two-year limitations statute, were not equitably tolled by the administrative process, and were unaffected by the law of the case doctrine. The court further held that no fiduciary or quasi-fiduciary relationship exists between a workers' compensation insurer and an insured, that the insurer's late denial letter was an inactionable statement of legal opinion rather than a factual misrepresentation, and that the public nature of the workers' compensation program does not per se satisfy the CCPA's public impact element, while affirming the remand of the CCPA claims for further proceedings including discovery. Chief Justice Mullarkey, concurring in part and dissenting in part and joined by Justice Hobbs, would have held that the denial letter contained actionable factual misrepresentations and would have allowed the fraud claim to proceed.