Sara Thorpe and Leslie Crary, attorneys in Gordon & Rees' Insurance Group, received a defense verdict in an insurance bad faith case tried for two weeks before Judge Stephen Dombrink in Alameda County Superior Court.

The Court had previously ruled that Gordon & Rees' client had a duty to defend an insured corporation in the underlying case but no duty to indemnify. The issues at trial were whether the decision not to defend was in bad faith and whether the corporation, or the 70 year old widowed property owner (who also claimed to be an insured), had been damaged in any amount beyond the costs of defense, which the client paid prior to trial. Plaintiffs sought to recover on a $3.5 million judgment entered against the client after an uncontested trial in the underlying case.

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