Bad Faith Insurance

Excess Insurance Case Law In Texas

April 3, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

If a resident of Grand Prairie or Arlington or other cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, Weatherford, and others in Texas has a policy of insurance with a limit and another policy that covers claims that go over the limit of the first insurance policy, what happens if the primary policy does not cooperate in settling the case? The Texas Supreme Court answered this question in a 1992 case.

The style of this case is long, American Centennial Insurance Company and First State Insurance v. Canal Insurance Company, Talbert, Biessel, Stone & Lyman, Giessel, Stone, Barker & Lyman, Henry P. Giessel and Richard S. Joseph. Canal Insurance Company (Canal) was the primary insurance company with coverage of $100,000. American Centennial Insurance Company (American) had coverage from $1 million to $4 million and First State Insurance (First State) had insurance from $100,000 for $1 million and were the excess insurance companies. In this case, the insured company was General Rent-A-Car International, Inc., who was sued for injuries and death allegedly resulting from a blowout of a defective tire on one its rental cars.

In the lawsuit against General, there was a $3.7 million settlement based on the claim itself and the alleged mishandling by trial counsel in the litigation. Trial counsel are the other parties named in the style of the lawsuit.

“Standing”? In Texas Insurance Law

March 30, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

A Grand Prairie life insurance policy holder passes away. His beneficiaries live in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Weatherford, and Mansfield. Who has “standing”, or the right to enforce the policy of insurance?

Uslegal.com defines “standing” as follows: Standing is the ability of a party to bring a lawsuit in court based upon their stake in the outcome. A party seeking to demonstrate standing must be able to show the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged. Otherwise, the court will rule that you “lack standing” to bring the suit and dismiss your case.

As further general information, there are three constitutional requirements to prove standing:

Deceptive Trade Practices And Insurance Code

March 29, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

A few things for people in Dallas, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Arlington to know. First, and most important would be to seek the help and advice of an experienced Insurance Law Attorney when having arguements with an insurance company. The second, is to use the Texas Department of Insurance web-site as a source of some information.

The Texas Insurance Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), which is found in the Texas Business & Commerce Code, were adopted together in 1973 by the Texas legislature as part of a package of reform legislation, are interrelated, and incorporate each other. Thus, as is stated by the Texas Supreme Court in the case, State Farm Life Insurance Company v. Beaston, in 1995, and in, Vail v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, in 1988; Courts construe the two statutes together.

Texas Insurance Code, Section 541.008, clearly states that the provisions of the code are to be liberally construed and applied to promote the underlying purposes which are to define and prohibit unfair and deceptive insurance practices.

Texas Insurance And The Deceptive Trade Practices Act

March 28, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie residents and residents of Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, Weatherford, and every other town in Texas should know a few things about holding insurance companies accountable. One is, they should always report wrongs to the Texas Department of Insurance. The other thing they should do is contact an experienced Insurance Law Attorney.

An attorney will discuss the fact that remedies for the wrongs committed by insurance companies are addressed in at least two areas of law in Texas; The Texas Insurance Code and the Texas Business & Comerce Code which contains the laws dealing with violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).

The Texas Insurance Code, Section 541.151(2) cross-references and prohibits conduct defined in The Business & Commerce Code, Section 17.46(b) of the DTPA. The latter statute applies to all types of consumer transactions, not just insurance, thus not all of the provisions are relevant to insurance issues. The sections that matter most in insurance cases are:

Unfair Settlement Practices In Texas

March 27, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie residents, residents of Arlington, Mansfield, Fort Worth, Dallas, Weatherford or anywhere else in Texas have the same insurance laws apply to each other. They all need to know there is a law that prohibits unfair settlement practices in the State of Texas.

Texas Insurance Code, Section 541.060, is titled “Unfair Settlement Practices”. It is the law that prohibits these types of actions. The statute prohibits engaging in any of the following settlement practices with respect to a claim by an insured person or his beneficiary:

(1) misrepresenting to a claimant a material fact or policy provision relating to coverage at issue;

Misrepresentations In Texas Insurance

March 26, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie residents and residents of Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Mansfield, Weatherford, and any other town or city in Texas have a right to have their insurance company and agent be honest with them. Misrepresentation of an insurance policy in Texas is illegal under the Texas Insurance Code and Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The Texas Insurance Code, Section 541.061, states that misrepresentation of an insurance policy in Texas is an unfair method of competition or an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the business of insurance. The title of Section 541.061 is “Misrepresentation of Insurance Policy”.

A violation of this section of the Texas Insurance Code is also a violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. As it relates to insurance misrepresentation, this section of the Insurance Code states that it is illegal to misrepresent features of an insurance policy by:

Texas Unfair Insurance Practices

March 23, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Regardless of what kind of insurance you have purchased or where in Texas the purchase occurred, the same law applies. So residents of Grand Prairie, Arlington, Mansfield, Dallas, Fort Worth, or Weatherford, all get treated the same.

This will be the first part of a several part writing on “unfair insurance practices”.

Chapter 541 if the Texas Insurance Code, is where the definition and prohibition for unfair and deceptive insurance practices is found. These sections of the Insurance Code are Sections 541.001 thru 541.061, Section 541.151 thru 541.162, and 541.453.

Texas Underinsured Motorist Case

March 18, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie policy holders, Arlington, Fort Worth, Weatherford, or anybody else in Texas who has a policy with underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) should be aware of a recent case decided in Texas.

The case is Mid-Century Insurance Company of Texas v. Synthia McClain. This case was an appeal from the 42nd District Court in Taylor County, Texas. The appeal was heard by the Eleventh Court of Appeals and an opinion was issued on March 11, 2010.

The facts are pretty simple. Synthia was injured in a wreck caused by Becky Morey. Becky had insurance which paid to Synthia the policy limits of $20,100. Synthia, then made a claim against her own insurance company, Mid-Century Insurance Company of Texas (Mid-Century), for UIM benefits. Synthia’s policy with Mid-Century provided UIM benefits of $20,000. Mid-Century had already paid the personal injury payments limits of $2,500 and Mid-Century made an offer of $1,500 additional money. Synthia then filed this lawsuit to recover the full measure of her damages.

Texas Case With Lots Of Insurance Law

March 11, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie residents beware; Weatherford residents beware; Arlington, Mansfield, Dallas, Fort Worth residents beware. Here is a case that makes you angry at the insurance company when you get into the details of how this person was treated by her insurance company and those associated with them.

The case is kinda old, decided in 2001. The style of the case is long, Lois Jones v. Ray Insurance Agency a/k/a Azteca Insurance and / or Alamo Insurance, and Collision Clinic, Inc., State & County Mutual Fire Insurance Company and Harbor Insurance Managers. It was decided by the Court of Appeals of Texas, Corpus Christi.

The facts of the case are long, but not really complicated. Lois Jones purchased a new 1998 Pontiac and purchased a State & County Mutual Fire Insurance Company insurance policy (State & County). This policy was purchased from the agent, Ray Insurance Agency a/k/a Azteca Insurance and / or Alamo Insurance (Ray). The policy administrator was Harbor Insurance Managers (Harbor). When purchasing the policy, Jones informed the agent that her sister lived with her, and was advised by the agent, that would not be a problem, and that as long as she paid her premiums on time she would have insurance. The policy with State & County excludes coverage for anyone residing with Jones age fourteen or over unless listed. Ms. Jones paid the November and December premium payments. The policy was to be effective from November 7, 1997 (the date of purchase) thru May 7, 1998.

Texas Bad Faith Insurance

December 19, 2009 | Mark S. Humphreys

Most people do not understand that there are two main kinds of law. The first, most people are familiar with, and we will call statutory law. This is the law that is written down by the legislative branch of government. For purposes of Insurance Law, it is the Sections, Chapters, and Subchapters of the Insurance Code.

The other kind of law, which most people are not aware of, is called the “common law”. The common law is the law that applies to situations even though the law is not specifically written down in a book somewhere.

Under Texas law, there is a “common law” duty for an insurance company to deal with one of its insureds in certain ways. This is called the the duty of good faith and fair dealing. When an insurance company does not honor its common law duty of dealing with one of its insureds in good faith, it is called “bad faith”. This concept was discussed by the Texas Supreme Court in 1987, in the case Arnold v. Nat. County Mut. Fire Ins. Co.