Geico off hook for $8.5M judgment in fatal crash

Court reverses 2015 jury decision finding insurance co. at fault.

WEST PALM BEACH — Geico Insurance won’t have to pay a Loxahatchee widow the $8.5 million a Palm Beach County jury said she deserved for losing her husband in a 2006 traffic accident, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

I n a n e i g h t - p a ge d e c i - sion, the 4th District Court of Appeal r ul e d t hat t he insurance giant did not act in bad faith in handling the claim involving the death of 51-year- old John Potts. Reversing a 2015 jury decision, the West Palm Beachbased appellate court said that while Geico could have handled the claim more efficiently, it didn’t commit malpractice.

“We find no factual basis t o s u s t a i n t h e b a d f a i t h judgment,” Judge Spencer Levine wrote in a decision that was joined by Judges Jonathan Gerber and Mark Klingensmith.

The decision means that James Harvey, who drove into Potts’ motorcycle on the Beeline Highway at Jog Road, is on the hook for the $8.5 million jury verdict that, with interest, has ballooned to at least $10 million. While his attorney, Fred Cunningham, wasn’t immediately available for comment, court records show the retired West Palm Beach consultant only had $85,000 in his business account at the time of the crash.

Had an attorney representing widow Tracey Potts k n o wn o f Ha r v e y ’s l i mited resources, he said he wouldn’t have pursued the wrongful death lawsuit, the appeals court wrote. However, the attorney said, Geico failed to provide him with that information.

That was the crux of the complicated bad faith lawsuit.

After a jury in 2010 found Harvey negligent in the crash a n d o rd e re d h i m t o p ay Tracey Potts $8.5 million, Cunningham sued Geico for acting in bad faith. During t h e 2 015 t r i a l , C u n n i n gham argued that the insurer erred by not telling Harvey to reveal his assets to Potts and her attorney.

But , the appeals cour t wrote, Geico’s insurance adjuster did tell Harvey that Potts’ attorney wanted the information. Harvey simply failed to provide it. Further, it noted that Geico paid Tracey Potts $100,000 — the limits of Harvey’s auto policy — nine days after the crash.

While t he j ur y i n 2 015 s i d e d w i t h H a r v e y a n d found Geico had acted in bad faith, the appeals court said it never should have been allowed to make the decision. A dearth of evidence presented during the trial should have prompted Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo to decide the suit in Geico’s favor, it wrote.