Here is a 2020, case wherein the Court allowed a petition to be amended and the result being that diversity jurisdiction was defeated. The opinion is from the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. It is styled, Robert Jones v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. State Farm provides uninsured…
Uninsured motorist protection (UIM) historically has been its on little niche of the law that was not purely tort law or purely contract law. Creative attorneys have recently been having success seeking UIM claims by way of a Declaratory Judgment Action. The most recent case is from the Corpus Christi…
Uninsured/Undersinsured (UIM) coverage has its own rules. It is sometimes hard to understand the distinction between UIM coverage claims and other tort claims and how this works with the Texas Insurance Code. However, this discussed in a January 2020, opinion from the United States Northern District Dallas Division. The opinion…
Insurance lawyers know to look at the Texas Insurance Code, starting at Section 1952.101, to see the requirement that insurance companies are required by the Texas Department of Insurance and by statute to provide underinsured (UIM) coverage in their automobile polices. One of the steps an insurance lawyer is suppose…
Uninsured motorist (UM) claims are in a category unto themselves. This is illustrated in a 2019, opinion styled, Ali Duhaly v. The Cincinnati Insurance Company. The opinion is from the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. Duhaly sued Cincinnati alleging breach of contract, among various other causes of action. Duhaly…
Texas insurance lawyers will find this interesting. A person finds early on when dealing with an insurance company that simply making complaints and contacting the Texas Department of Insurance is a waste of time and effort. If you are an attorney representing someone injured in an automobile accident and the…
Insurance lawyers will often run across the situation at issue in the 2018, Dallas Court of Appeals opinion, George Bryant v. Progressive County Mutual Insurance Company and Kristen Winkler. This is a uninsured motorist (UM) case wherein Bryant sued Progressive and the adjuster, Winkler, for the harm caused by the…
The Fort Worth Court of Appeals issued an opinion on November 15, 2018, that is worthy reading for lawyers handling uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage (UIM). The case is styled, William Blevins v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. This case is an appeal from a trial by Blevins against…
Sometimes figuring out what is an “accident” for uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is tricky. In the 1999, Texas Supreme Court opinion styled, Mid-Century Insurance Company of Texas v. Lindsey, found coverage for the plaintiff, who was seated in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle. In a truck next to…
A Parker County or Palo Pinto County insurance lawyer handling uninsured motorist (UM) claims need to understand how the terms “accidents” and “arise out of use” are looked at by Texas courts. Texas decisions suggest that if an incident is intentional or criminal in nature, there may not be an…