Curry v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. , 784 S.W.2d 176 ( 1989 )

STEPHENS, Justice,

concurring.

I support the principle that recovery in tort should be available to an insured when its insurance company refuses in bad faith to pay on a claim. However, causes of action for tortious breach of contract must be carefully circumscribed, as set forth in Justice Leibson’s dissent in Federal Kem-per. An insured does not avail himself of this cause of action by merely alleging bad faith due to an insurance company’s disputing or delaying payment on a claim. An insured must prove that the insurer is obligated to pay under the policy, that the insurer lacks a reasonable basis for denying the claim, and that the insurer either knew there was no reasonable basis to deny the claim or acted with reckless disregard for whether such a basis existed. An insurer’s refusal to pay on a claim, alone, should not be sufficient to trigger the firing of this new tort.

LEIBSON, J., joins in this concurring opinion.