If Cawthorn’s account of racking up $3 million in medical debt is true, though, he might not have paid it out of pocket. Court records in a
complicated (to me) legal battle reveal that his friend Brad Ledford’s car insurance company seemed perfectly willing to
pay him and his family $3 million shortly after the 2014 accident (and eventually did). But—in a twist!—the initial $3 million offer apparently wasn’t enough for Cawthorn and his family, who ended up suing not only the car insurance company but Cawthorn’s friend who was driving the vehicle. Cawthorn then got his $3 million from the auto insurance company (which again, the company had offered to him before the lawsuit) and settled with his friend Ledford for a cool $30 million, who then transferred that judgment to him so Cawthorn could sue the insurance company for that same amount. Cawthorn then sued the insurance company again, a case that he lost and then l
ost again on appeal.
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He didn't recover the $30 million. The insurance company paid $3 million, which was below policy limits (or untimely tendered). His friend then assigned his rights to sue the friend's insurance company for exposing the friend to an excess judgment (i.e., a judgment above policy limits, in this case, the $30 million consent judgment), which is known as a "insurer bad faith" suit. My firm handles these cases all the time.
By taking that assignment to sue the insurer in a bad faith suit, you can't come back and try to collect that consent judgment from the friend if you lose the bad faith suit. It's called a covenant not to execute, and it is a standard feature of these cases.
Read your own article. It says very clearly at the end of your post that he lost the bad faith suit against the insurer to recover the $30 million, and he lost the appeal. Hence, the only money he actually recovered was the $3 million settlement, which was subrogated to cover past medical expenses, so it's unlikely he took away more than a couple hundred thousand after attorney's fees and medical liens were paid. Now consider that he also has future medical expenses for the rest of his life as a result of this, which will easily exceed whatever amount he was left with.
You call that a golden spoon? You are one sick puppy, and/or just completely detached from the human experience.