Section 16 Effect of a Claim That Is More Than Is Owed Under the Policy or When Amount Owed Is Uncertain or Undetermined

• Library: Damages 2012

There is authority for the proposition that an insurer is not liable for vexatious penalties in refusing to pay a claim in an amount far in excess of what the insured is entitled to. In Boenzle v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 258 S.W.2d 938 (Mo. App. E.D. 1953), the insured was entitled to $90 under a comprehensive automobile policy but claimed over $1,200. The court stated:

There was no obligation on the insurers to make a tender at their peril of the actual amount due under the policy, viz. $90, in the face of plaintiff’s demand for a much greater sum. If plaintiff desired to place the insurers in the position of wilful wrongdoers he should have confined his claim to the amount he was actually entitled to recover. In demanding and suing for more he cannot complain of the defendants’ refusal to pay.

Id. at 943; see also...