Ending a putative class action, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit examined policy language and two statutes to hold that an insurer does not owe sales tax on top of an actual cash value payment. The...more
A roofing contractor called Stonewater Roofing, Ltd. (Stonewater) challenged a Texas statute regulating public adjusters' conduct on the basis that the statute violates free speech and due process rights under the First and...more
6/12/2024
/ Contractors ,
False Advertising ,
First Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Code ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Property Damage ,
Public Adjusters ,
TX Supreme Court
In Rodriguez v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Ind. the Texas Supreme Court addressed a key issue concerning appraisal that was dividing lower Texas state courts and Texas federal district courts. The United States Court of Appeal for...more
COVID-19 business interruption claimants have had few state appellate court decisions upon which to rely. Louisiana produced one such decision in Cajun Conti, LLC v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, 2022 La. App. LEXIS 939...more
The First Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed an analysis that involved math and application of the Texas Insurance Code. In Jones v. Allstate Vehicle & Property Insurance Company, 2022 Tex. App. LEXIS 8896 (Tex....more
In Advanced Indicator & Manufacturing v. Acadia Insurance Company, the Fifth Circuit resolved a thorny split in Texas federal district courts regarding Texas Insurance Code Chapter 542A by returning to a bedrock principle...more
There is a clear nationwide trend of federal courts disposing of COVID-19 business interruption suits. Insureds are not clearing their initial burden to establish direct physical loss or damage to property, or they are...more
Ever since the Texas Supreme Court changed the landscape of Texas law regarding appraisal in Barbara Technologies Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. 2019) and Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 127 (Tex....more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has joined seven other Circuits in finding no coverage for COVID-19 business interruption claims. In Terry Black’s Barbecue, L.L.C. v. State Auto. Mut. Ins. Co., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 287...more
At least five Circuit Courts of Appeal have now come out in favor of insurers in COVID-19 business interruption lawsuits. The latest is the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Sandy Point Dental, P.C. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co.,...more
12/21/2021
/ Business Interruption ,
Business Losses ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Policy Exclusions ,
Property Damage ,
Property Insurance
In the continuing saga of what can and cannot be appraised in a property insurance appraisal, the Tenth Circuit, in contrast to many other courts, has ruled appraisers can determine coverage issues....more
Just a few short years ago, there was a bright line rule under Texas law concerning appraisal awards. If an insurer timely paid an appraisal award, that payment extinguished all of the insurer’s contractual and...more
8/23/2021
/ Appeals ,
Appraisal Awards ,
Bad Faith ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Prompt Payment ,
Property Insurance ,
Summary Judgment ,
Travelers Property Casualty Co. ,
TX Supreme Court ,
Underpayment
In Chavez v. Std. Ins. Co., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203610 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 30, 2020), Judge David C. Godbey considered a variation on a common scenario that arises in first party cases. Typically, the insured/plaintiff wants...more
Policyholders attorneys often try to skip the threshold steps of bringing their client’s claim within coverage and allocating between covered and non-covered causes of loss. Instead, the policyholder attorney would have the...more
When the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinions in Barbara Techs. Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. 2019) and Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 127 (Tex. 2019), a badly fractured court overturned prior...more
Texas policyholders can no longer cut deals with storm repair contractors to pocket their deductibles for storm repairs. The Texas Legislature has amended the Texas Insurance Code and Texas Business & Commerce Code,...more
10/23/2019
/ Construction Project ,
Contract Waiver ,
Contractors ,
Deductibles ,
Goods or Services ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Code ,
Insurance Regulations ,
Policy Terms ,
Property Damage ,
Property Insurance ,
Repairs ,
Severe Weather
Judge Nancy Atlas of the Southern District of Texas cut through competing arguments to resolve a high-profile dispute involving a Hurricane Harvey claim through Contract Interpretation 101....more
Are an insurer’s attorney’s fee bills discoverable in first party claims? In In re Nat’l Lloyds Ins. Co., 2017 Tex. LEXIS 522 (Tex. 2017), the Texas Supreme Court considered this question in a hail MDL dispute and answered...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a per curiam opinion in De Jongh v. State Farm Lloyds, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 21432 (5th Cir. 2016) that clarified a typical but potentially tricky question involving...more
The Texas Supreme Court handed property owners a major victory on an issue of increasing importance as West Nile Virus and Zika Virus spread around the country. The court held that the doctrine of ferae naturae limits a...more