Jury Awards $6.5 Million to Family of Car Crash Victim

The family of a woman killed in a 1984 auto accident was awarded $6.5 million Thursday by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury in a bad-faith case against two insurance companies.

Alma Tiffany, 33, of Los Angeles was killed and her two daughters were seriously injured in a two-car collision outside Medford, Ore. The other driver, Michael Steward, then 19, was convicted of second-degree assault in the accident.

Tiffany’s daughters, Crystal, then 11, and Cherish, then 12, recovered from their injuries.

The family sued in 1988 after they were unable to collect on Steward’s $50,000 insurance policy and had to wait more than two years to collect on Tiffany’s policy, said their attorney, Thomas V. Girardi.

“Here was a family that had a massive claim . . . and the insurance companies only had a lousy $50,000 to pay,” Girardi said. “Instead, they decided to horse around. That was really the thing the jury thought was despicable.”

Girardi said Steward’s insurer, State Farm, contended that the teen-ager had been trying to kill himself when his vehicle crossed a double line and collided with Tiffany’s car. The company maintained that the insurance policy did not cover intentional acts.

Although the other insurance company, Oregon Mutual, eventually paid the Tiffanys $50,000, it was accused in the lawsuit of “failure to be fair and reasonable,” the plaintiffs’ attorney said.

The Tiffanys were awarded $150,000 in compensatory damages against each company, and $5 million and $1.4 million in punitive damages against State Farm and Oregon Mutual, respectively.

State Farm’s lawyer could not be reached for comment. Oregon Mutual’s lawyer, N. David Lyons, declined comment.