The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a summary judgment granted to the insurer over a policyholder’s argument that payment of an appraisal award and interest may extinguish an insurer’s liability...more
2/13/2025
/ Appeals ,
Appraisal ,
Bad Faith ,
Breach of Contract ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Contracts ,
Insurance Litigation ,
Pleading Standards ,
Pleadings ,
Property Damage ,
Property Insurance ,
Summary Judgment ,
Tort
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
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
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
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
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