S. Larry Crookston, Randi L. Crookston, and Anna W. Drake

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court upheld Fire Insurance Exchange's liability for fraud and the full compensatory-damage award arising from its handling of the Crookstons' property-loss claim. It held that the policy's one-year limitation clause did not bar the Crookstons' tort claims, that the unpreserved challenge to the fraud instruction was not reviewable, and that the evidence supported the fraud verdict. The court vacated the denial of a new trial on punitive damages and remanded for the trial court to reconsider the award under clarified standards requiring reasoned evaluation of excessiveness. Justice Stewart, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would have affirmed the punitive award, while Justice Howe concurred but objected to the majority's discussion of unbriefed new-trial grounds.