General

Reservation Of Rights Letter – Get An Attorney

March 1, 2012 | Mark S. Humphreys

If someone in Grand Prairie, Fort Worth, Saginaw, Keller, Roanoke, Haslet, Rhome, Justin, Boyd, or anywhere els gets a “reservation of rights” letter from their insurance company, there is one thing they need to do right away. See an experienced Insurance Law Attorney and have him go over the facts and policy in your situation.

The Texas Court of Appeals, Houston, 1st District, issued an opinion in 1999, that deals with a “reservation of rights” situation. The style of the case is Pecan Grove Association v. John L. Wortham & Sons. Here are some facts.

From 1982 to 1988, Pecan Grove purchased general liability insurance from Lloyds through its agent, Wortham. After June 1988, Pecan Grove purchased its general liability insurance from St. Paul through Wortham, which was also an agent for St. Paul. Wortham was an agent for both carriers. In February, 1988, Pecan Grove was sued by homeowners alleging that the property sold to them was not fit for construction. In October 1990, the Plaintiffs in the underlying suit amended their claims to add more than 70 additional plaintiffs. On December 6, 1990, Pecan Grove sent a letter to St. Paul with a copy to St. Paul through Wortham. On December 13, 1990, St. Paul issued a general reservation of rights letter. On December 17, 1992, St. Paul denied a defense and indemnity based on the policy’s real estate operations exclusion. On December 30, 1993, Pecan Grove settled the underlying lawsuit for $2,500,000.

Force Placed Insurance Claims

February 5, 2012 | Mark S. Humphreys

If you are in Grand Prairie, Arlington, Fort Worth, Roanoke, Keller, Colleyville, Saginaw, or some other place in Tarrant County or Texas and find yourself in some financial trouble, it may be that you find yourself letting your homeowners insurance lapse. If that happens the mortgage lender on your home will buy what is called a force-placed insurance policy and charge you with the premium. There are a bunch of problems when this happens. Two of these problems are real important to you.

First, is that force-placed insurance is very expensive and you are responsible for paying it.

Second, is that a force-place policy covers the mortgage holder not you. In other words, none of your personal property or the contents of the house is covered in the event of a fire loss. Further, if you are sued by someone, the insurance does not cover you. If you get burglarized, you are not covered.

Electronic Signatures And Insurance

January 31, 2012 | Mark S. Humphreys

Residents of Grand Prairie, Fort Worth, Dallas, Arlington, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, and other places in Texas have all become familiar with the use of computers and the purchasing products and services over the internet. A question that often comes up in the context of insurance, particularly Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits and Uninsured / Underinsured (UM) benefits is: How is the requirement of a signed rejection of these benefits viewed when the insurance purchase is made over the internet?

Here is some guidance:

The Texas Department of Insurance issued a bulletin that required compliance with the Texas Uniform Electronic Transaction Act. This act is found in the Texas Business & Commerce Code, Chapter 43.

Title Insurance Case

January 29, 2012 | Mark S. Humphreys

Grand Prairie and Fort Worth holders of a title insurance policy might find this recent case of interest.

The Court of Appeals, Tyler, issued an opinion recently in the case styled, Howard L Straily and Tommie J. Straily v. Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation. Here is some background information:

The Strailys own a home built on a pier and beam foundation. Upon noticing that water had pooled beneath their home and believing the source of the pooling to be a water leak, they hired a plumber to investigate the problem. The plumber pumped water from beneath the home and conducted a visual inspection of the area and discovered an uncapped sewer line that was depositing a large quantity of sewage and water onto the property.

Allstate Insurance And Others Raising Rates

January 28, 2012 | Mark S. Humphreys

Here is an article for people living in Grand Prairie, Fort Worth, Arlington, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, and other places in Tarrant County. It is from the Washington Post Business Page and authored by Noah Buhayar. The article was published on January 11, 2012, and much of it appears below.

Allstate Insurance Company, Travelers Insurance, and State Farm Automobile Insurance Company are among insurance companies raising homeowners’ rates after damage from natural disasters defied industry projections.

Allstate, the #2 United States home insurer, boosted prices for its namesake brand of home policies by 5.6 percent in the nine months through September 30, and has said more increases are coming. Travelers is raising rates after re-evaluating United States storm risk. State Farm, the largest U.S. home insurer, has charged homeowners more nationwide for three straight years.

Insurance And Mental Anguish Claims

December 27, 2011 | Mark S. Humphreys

When someone in Weatherford, Mineral Wells, Aledo, Willow Park, Hudson Oaks, Azle, Springtown, Millsap, Brock, or anywhere else in Texas really gets mistreated in an insurance case, that person will probably have a claim for mental anguish. So, how does that work?

A 2004, Corpus Christi Court of Appeals case gives some insight on the answer. The style of the case is, Minnesota Life Insurance Company v. Elia L. Vasquez. Here is some background.

Elia Vasquez alleged that Minnesota Life Insurance Company unreasonably delayed payment of the proceeds of an accidental death policy that insured the life of her deceased husband. As part of the lawsuit, Vasquez sued for mental anguish damages. The jury awarded her $60,000 in mental anguish damages. There were other issues in the case which are not discussed here.

Insurance Policy Cancellation

December 25, 2011 | Mark S. Humphreys

Insured persons in Weatherford, Mineral Wells, Aledo, Azle, Springtown, Hudson Oaks, Willow Park, Brock, Millsap, and other places in Parker County may have a situation arise where a policy of insurance they have is cancelled. A natural question at times may be – How does that work?

To find out about the procedures for policy cancellation, a person can seek several sources for an answer.

1) Get the insurance agent who sold the policy to explain. The problem with this answer is that sometimes the agent may have made a mistake or may have reasons to not be completely honest with his answers or explanations.

Insurance Attorney And Insurance Claims And Offsets

December 4, 2011 | Mark S. Humphreys

There are times for someone in Grand Prairie, Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, De Soto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Crowley, Mansfield, and other places in Texas to get with an Insurance Law Attorney to understand how certain aspects of insurance claims are to be handled.

In 1999, the Court of Appeals, Fourteenth District, Houston, had a case of “first impression,” meaning they were presented with an argument for the first time. The case dealt with an argument for offset and settlement credit against uninsured motorist coverage by a negligent third party. The dispute arose out of a multi-car accident.

The style of the case is, “Ann M. Bartley a/k/a Anne Marie Tadlock v. Martell Rae Guillot.” Here are some facts:

Insurance Complaints

November 20, 2011 | Mark S. Humphreys

People in Grand Prairie, Arlington, Saginaw, Bedford, Hurst, Euless, Grapevine, Colleyville, Grapevine, Keller, Boyd, Newark, or anywhere else in and around Tarrant County should know a little bit about the insurance company they are buying their insurance from.

The Texas Department of Insurance is a good resource to use to learn about almost all insurance companies doing business in the State of Texas. Their web-site is easy to navigate and contains lots of useful information on insurance companies and insurance agents and insurance adjustors. It has information related to licensing and information related to complaints filed. There is also a lot of information about the financial viability of the companies.

The site has lots of general information. Surfing their web-site will usually result in finding out information you did not know and are glad you discovered.

Lawyers And Home Owners Claims

November 17, 2011 | Mark S. Humphreys

Home owners in Grand Prairie, Arlington, Grapevine, Colleyville, Irving, Crowley, De Soto, Dallas, Fort Worth, Mesquite, Lake Worth, and other places in the DFW metropolitan area do not have some of the fears and concerns that home owners along the Gulf Coast have. But there are always concerns about claims denials resulting in a homeowner taking a loss. So, being aware of other ways of recovering losses is important.

The Miami Herald ran a story on October 26, 2001, titled Homeowners File Lawsuit Against Chinese Drywall Manufacturer, Distributor.

The history of these Chinese drywall claims is pretty easy to follow. After storms hit the Gulf Coast area in the early part of this decade, a lot of the damaged homes were repaired using Chinese drywall. This drywall was defective causing problems with home owners and devaluing effected homes.