A new Florida case concluded that a bad faith claim against a decedent’s insurance company can be maintained when the claimant has failed to file a timely creditor claim against the estate. In Estate of Arroyo v. Infinity Indemnity Insurance Co., an appeals court was elicited to determine the application of the law imposing a statute of limitations of two years for creditors seeking to file a claim against a decedent’s estate. Specifically in this case, however, the court was needed to determine the application of the law in a bad-faith claim against an insurance company. An individual was suing the insurance company as a victim of a car crash, which ultimately ended up killing the decedent, for not defending the Estate in the negligence action. Ultimately, the court found that the negligence lawsuit and subsequent bad-faith proceedings did not fall with the statute of limitations for creditor claims because the statute only applies to lawsuits against the estate and the victim was barred from enforcing the consent judgment against the Estate.
See Bad Faith Claim Against Decedent’s Insurer Not Subject to Creditor Claim Period, Florida Probate Lawyers, January 24, 2017.
