Where an automobile collision insurer agrees to settle a loss by making repairs, and makes repairs but wrongfully
withholds the use and possession of the car from the insured, it converts it and is liable as for the conversion. [FN28]
Thus, for example, where an automobile collision insurer left a draft with the repairer for the amount of repair bill less deductible portion, and instructed the repairer not to deliver the car
to the insured unless he or she executed a full release notwithstanding that the insured had the contractual right to collect from the insurer for the diminution in value of the automobile, and insured refused to
execute the release, insurer was liable for conversion and insured could recover actual and punitive damages. [FN29] Where the insured under an automobile collision policy and the insurer were
unable to agree upon the amount of the loss after the insured refused to allow repair because he or she considered the automobile a total loss, and the insurer took the liberty of removing the automobile from the shop
where it had been stored following the accident and sold it to a salvage company while ownership was still vested in the insured, the insurer tortuously converted the automobile. [FN30] A
collision insurer covering a tractor trailer which performed acts of dominion over the unit after the collision in defiance of the insured's right to possession was liable for conversion, as against the contention that
since such acts were part and parcel of an effort to repair, the insurer's good intentions should be a complete defense. [FN31] While a collision insurer of a tractor trailer had contractual
duties and obligations to perform with regard to repairs after a collision, it was not entitled to approach those duties in such a manner as to breach the rights of the insured in the performance, and had no right of
conversion. [FN32] |
