In the State of Mississippi, a policy holder filed a lawsuit seeking access to Mississippi Insurance Department records. The lawsuit is seeking records that would show the dollar amount of Katrina claims denied by insurance companies. The courts in Mississippi and other coastal areas have loaded up with lawsuits related…
Yesterdays blog discussed actions that can be taken by the Texas Department of Insurance when a person commits a deceptive act or practice under Chapter 541 of the Texas Insurance Code or Section 17.46, Business & Commerce Code. Here the discussion will be about a persons’ “private causes of action”.…
Subchapter C, of the Texas Insurance Code deals with how the Texas Department of Insurance examines, investigates, and determines whether a person engaged in the business of insurance has engaged in an unfair method of competition or unfair or deceptive act or practice prohibited in the business of insurance. This…
Insurance Fraud is a crime in Texas. A person can go on-line to the Texas Department of Insurance to get a lot of information about insurance fraud. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), insurance fraud is one of the most costly white collar crimes in America, ranking second…
A recent article originating in Florida, highlights a problem that many homeowners face and none wished they faced. The article title “Insurers dropping Chinese drywall policies”, talks about some new homes being built with a Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. Sounds pretty bad, and it is,…
The Supreme Court of Texas decided a case this year wherein the distinction between “claims made” policies and “occurrence” policies was discussed. This case is, Prodigy Communications Corp. v. Agricultural Excess & Surplus Insurance Company. As discussed in an earlier case on this blog, the PAJ case, the main issue…
Texas Insurance Code, art. 5.06-1 and the particular policy’s “Right to Recover Payment clause create a statutory and contractual right of subrogation against a third party motorist to recover uninsured and underinsured payments the insurance company makes to its customer. If the insurance company makes a payment to any person…
An opinion issued by the Texas Court of Appeals in Houston on October 15, 2009 is noteworthy. Atleast one part of this decision addresses a law in Texas that most attorneys do not know. The case is Anthony Sheppard v. Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company. This case discusses limitations…
An appeal from a Dallas, Texas Court decision was decided by the Texas Supreme Court, in the case PAJ, Inc., d/b/a/ Prime Art & Jewel, v. The Hanover Insurance Company. This case was decided in January, 2008. It discussed the responsibilities of holders of an insurance policy as it relates…
In Texas, there are rules regulating the conditions for an insurance company to cancel certain liability policies or to opt to nonrenew the policies. These rules are found primarily in Section 551 of the Texas Insurance Code. To begin with, one rule found in Section 551.052 says that an insurance…