settle or defend, as we consider appropriate, any claim or suit asking for these damages. Had Allstate only assumed responsibility to pay damages whenever its insured became legally responsible, it would have assumed the role of a surety. When Allstate took the initiative to settle the claim for which its insured had not yet become legally responsible, however, it was settling not only its insured’s potential liability but its own possible obligation to pay and its own duty to defend its insured. The oral promise to settle was an original undertaking, not a promise to answer for the debt of the insured. Therefore, the suretyship provision of the Statute of Frauds does not apply to Allstate’s promise to settle. See Klag v. Home Ins. Co., 116 Ga.App. 678, 158 S.E.2d 444, 451-52 (1967) (<HOLDING>). Allstate argues the rationale underlying
holding that action against an erisa plan administrator based on his alleged oral promise to pay for the majori ty of beneficiarys medical expenses was not a colorable claim under  502a1b because dispute concerned the terms of the alleged oral promise not of the erisa plan itself holding insurers oral promise to settle a claim was an original undertaking and need not be in writing holding that the failure to carry out an oral promise to convey land standing by itself is not fraud holding that absent a factual basis rendering it invalid an oral agreement to settle a title vii claim is enforceable against a plaintiff holding that express oral agreement with government agent was not binding because among other factors applicable regulations required contract to be in writing