The Supreme Court of Texas recently held in Gregory v. Chohan, that there must exist a rational connection between the amount awarded and the evidence of the ‘nature, duration, and severity’ of non-economic damages suffered by a plaintiff in cases involving emotional...
Evolving Intellectual Property Opportunities, Exposures, and Coverage Issues Intangible assets now exceed the value of tangible assets in many Fortune 1000 organizations, as well as small and medium-sized private entities. Read more..
In its original opinion in USAA Texas Lloyds Company v.menchaca , the Texas Supreme Court. Read more..
The question of whether an insured can recover actual damages under the Texas Insurance Code without showing that he or she suffered damages independent of the policy proceeds was answered back in 1988. Read more..
New court decisions have blurred the lines between contractual and extracontractual liability claims in the third party claim context. What was once a purely contractual claim—breach of the duty to defend—has recently evolved into a claim for tort damages in Texas....
What is left of the “Estoppel by Appraisal” doctrine after the Texas Supreme Court’s decisions in Ortiz, Barbara Tech, and Hinojos? On one hand, Ortiz was a very favorable ruling for insurers, holding that payment of an appraisal award effectively bars bad faith claims, absent the rare case proving “independent injury.” See Oscar Ortiz v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d…
The fundamental principles surrounding litigation of third-party liability claims in Texas have remained fairly constant. Indeed, the Texan nomenclature for a cause of action based on failure to settle derives its name from a case decided in 1929 involving the Stowers...
Today Texas Supreme Court extended its holding in Barbara Tech. Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds that payment of an appraisal award does not extinguish penalty interest or attorney’s fees under the Prompt Payment of Claims Act. 589 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. 2019). The Court categorically rejected the “reasonable undisputed payment” defense as inconsistent with Barbara Tech. See Hinojos v. State Farm…
In our first webinar, we had a lively discussion on the impact of the Big Freeze on claims, coverage, and bad faith litigation. For context, the three costliest storms from 2008-2017 totaled insured losses of just over $32B. The Big Freeze is on the way to surpass these totals. Why? What sets the Big Freeze apart is that it was…
There have been major updates to in the field of COVID-19 business interruption litigation. Several courts have ruled in favor of insurance companies and dismissed business owners claims for coverage. New York and Michigan are two states that have ruled against COVID-19 business interruption claims. The Courts held that business interruption claim payouts require a tangible alteration to a property…
