Page:Parker v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co.pdf/12

1084   * Page 12 – memo dated May 23, 1994. I contacted Streetman and advised him our position is unchanged unless they can produce the cancelled check.

Parker does not explain how these documents were pertinent to his claim of bad faith, nor does he argue that he was prejudiced by their exclusion. He simply asserts that the claim file is discoverable because it contains the evidence that he needs to show bad faith and that he should be allowed full, complete and unfettered access to his entire claim file. We cannot discern any information in these memos that Parker did not otherwise possess, and he has not shown that he was prejudiced by the trial court's exclusion of these documents.

2. Bad-faith claim.
[6] This court has stated that an insurance company may incur liability for the first-party tort of bad faith when it affirmatively engages in dishonest, malicious, or oppressive conduct in order to avoid a just obligation to its insured. ''R.J. Jones Excavating Contr. v. Firemen's Ins.'', 324 Ark. 282, 920 S.W.2d 483 (1996); ''Employers Equitable Life Ins. Co. v. Williams'', 282 Ark. 29, 665 S.W.2d 873 (1984). Stated another way, we have often explained that the tort of bad faith requires affirmative misconduct, without a good-faith defense; the affirmative conduct must be dishonest, malicious, or oppressive in an attempt to avoid the insurer's liability under an insurance policy. ''See, e.g., Reynolds v. Shelter Mut. Ins. Co.'', 313 Ark. 145, 852 S.W.2d 799 (1993).

In the present case, Parker argues that his bad-faith claim is based on Farm Bureau's intentional failure to comply with the statutory and policy provision requiring the ten-day notice of intent to cancel for nonpayment of premiums, and Farm Bureau's intentional failure to give him a twelve-day grace period that it gave to some of its other insureds. Parker contends that Farm Bureau engaged in oppressive conduct by persisting in its assertion that Parker had only a three-month policy, and that this policy was not cancelled, but had expired. He contends that Farm Bureau knew these assertions and its reliance on Hall, supra, were unfounded. Parker further suggests that Farm Bureau's failure to appeal the summary judgment granted to him on the issue of coverage is evidence that Farm Bureau's conduct was willful and intentional, and not based in good faith.