Uninsured/Underinsured Coverage

2 Texas Auto Policies – One Accident

February 8, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Here is a situaton where a Dallas resident had a wreck in Mesquite, but it could have been Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, or out in Weatherford. The injured persons had two insurance policies with the same insurance company.

This happened in a 1984 case, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Rhode Island, v. Lenny and Terri Lucas. Mr. Lucas was accompanied by his wife, Ms. Lucas, in an ambulance. A drunk driver ran head-on into the ambulance causing injuries to the Lucas’. They had two separate insurance policies with Travelers Indemnity, for Personal Injury Protection benefits and underinsured motorists benefits. Travelers paid the full amount under one policy to each of the Lucas’ but refused to pay under the second policy. The damages to the Lucas’ exceeded the limit of both the policies combined.

The ambulance also had underinsured benefits with a policy through Aetna. Travelers tried to limit what it had to pay by citing an “Other Insurance” clause within the Travelers policy.

Underinsured / Uninsured Auto Claims In Texas

February 6, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Praire, Weatherford, or any other town in Texas should be interested in a question posed by an attorney the other day on a web-site, to other attorneys who sub-scribed to the site. It was a question dealing with uninsured and underinsured (UM) automobile coverage.

In the situation, a potential client had come into the attorneys office. The potential new client had been involved in an accident where the other person did not have enough insurance coverage to fully cover the damages this potential new client had suffered. Sounds simple so far. Here was the problem: More than two years had past since the accident had occurred. The question posed was: Can I recover more money from the UM coverage on the injured persons automobile policy.

This was the issue in the case Raul C. Franco et ux., v. Allstate Insurance Company. In the Franco case, Franco sought to recover damages due to the death of their daughter in an automobile accident. The lawsuit had been filed approximately three years after the date of the accident. The applicable statute of limitations for an injury claim was two years.

Recent Texas Case Concerning Uninsured Motorist Coverage

January 24, 2010 | Mark S. Humphreys

Here is a case that was originally filed in a State District Court in Dallas, Texas. The case was removed to Federal Court and promptly dismissed.

The style of the case is “Kenneth McQuinne v. American Home Assurance Company”. The only important issue in the case was whether or not a self insured vehicle was “uninsured” for purposes of the American Home Assurance Company policy argued about in this case.

The facts in this case are that McQuinne was involved in a wreck with a person named Sapkota. Sapkota was driving a vehicle owned by Enterprise Leasing. McQuinne reached a settlement with Sapkota’s insurance company for the policy limit of $50,000. McQuinne alleged that his damages exceeded that amount and consequently filed a claim with American seeking additional benefits under the policy American had issued on his employer, Turfgrass.

Significant Under Insured Motorist Case In Texas

October 23, 2009 | Mark S. Humphreys

One of the most significant Texas cases discussing Texas Insurance Law as it relates to underinsured auto coverage was decided in 2006. This Texas Supreme Court case was Lilith Brainard, et al., v. Trinity Universal Insurance Company.

This case involved a head-on collision with a rig owned by a company called Premier. The ultimate decision in the case would have been the same regardless whether the accident occured in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Weatherford or anywhere else in Texas. Brainard was killed in the wreck. He had an underinsured policy with Trinity. Brainards’ widow and children made a claim for benefits from Trinity and also filed a lawsuit against Premier.

Trinity paid the $5,000 Personal Injury Protection benefits under the policy immediately but nothing on the underinsured portion of the policy. Brainard settled the claim against Premier for the policy limits of $1,000,000. Brainard then requested that Trinity pay its underinsured policy limts of $1,000,000. Trinity refused but did offer $50,000. Brainard proceeded to trial and got a judgment wherein the jury awarded damages of $1,010,000 in actual damages.