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Mealey's Texas Insurance

  • September 08, 2025

    Property Damage Dispute Will Remain In Texas Federal Court, Judge Says

    SHERMAN, Texas — An insured’s breach of contract suit stemming from a denied property insurance claim will remain in Texas federal court because the property insurer met its burden of showing that the amount in controversy exceeds the federal jurisdictional minimum requirement of $75,000, a Texas federal judge said in denying the insured’s motion to remand.

  • September 08, 2025

    Texas Magistrate Judge Says Suit Against Auto Insurer Should be Dismissed

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended that an insured’s suit against an auto insurer be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the amount in controversy does not meet the federal minimum requirement of $75,000 and because it is not clear that complete diversity of citizenship exists between the parties.

  • September 08, 2025

    No Changes Permitted To Attorney Fee Order In Workers’ Comp Suit, Texas Panel Says

    AUSTIN, Texas — A trial court properly determined that an attorney fee award in a workers’ compensation case could not be altered or enforced by the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation because the claimant failed to appeal the fee award after it was entered by the trial court, the Texas Third District Court of Appeals said Sept. 4 in affirming the lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the workers’ compensation insurer.

  • September 08, 2025

    Insured’s Claims In Fire Damage Suit Should Not Proceed, Magistrate Judge Says

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended that an insurer’s motion for summary judgment be granted in a dispute over coverage for fire damage because the insurer paid the full policy limit for the fire damage and the insured failed to show that the insurer promised to pay anything more than the available policy limit.

  • September 08, 2025

    Policyholders’ Declaratory Relief Claim Proceeds In Loss Calculation Dispute

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal judge said an insurer is not entitled to summary judgment on a declaratory relief claim brought by a class of policyholders and pertaining to the insurer’s calculation of future labor costs on homeowners’ property damage claims because the class is entitled to resolution of the issue even if the class’s breach of contract claims fail.

  • September 08, 2025

    Insured, Insurer Settle Storm Damage Dispute; Texas Federal Judge Dismisses Suit

    SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A Texas federal judge dismissed an insured’s breach of contract suit against a homeowners insurer after the parties settled a dispute over the value of the insured’s claim for wind and hail damage to his home.

  • September 08, 2025

    Panel Reverses Ruling On Breach Of Contract Claim Related To Contents Damage

    HOUSTON — An insured’s breach of contract claim related only to contents damage can proceed against a homeowners insurer because a binding appraisal award did not account for the insured’s contents damage caused by an explosion at a manufacturing facility near the insured’s home, a Texas appellate court said in partially reversing a trial court’s ruling.

  • September 08, 2025

    Fact Issue Exists On Whether Bursting Of Water Pipes Is An Explosion, Panel Says

    HOUSTON — A panel of the 14th District Texas Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a homeowners insurer after determining that a question of fact exists as to whether the bursting of water pipes in an insured’s home constitutes an explosion for which coverage is afforded under the policy.

  • September 04, 2025

    Faulty Grain Silo Coverage Suit Dismissed On Remand Per Parties’ Stipulation

    LAREDO, Texas — A federal judge in Texas dismissed with prejudice an insurer’s declaratory judgment action the same day the insurer, an insured contractor and a farmers cooperative filed a joint motion to dismiss the insured’s suit seeking a coverage declaration for the defective construction of grain silos.  The stipulation was filed the day after a magistrate judge issued an order scheduling a conference in preparation for a fall trial.

  • September 02, 2025

    Insured’s Breach Of Contract Claim Fails, Amended Complaint Allowed, Judge Says

    TYLER, Texas — A Texas federal judge overruled an insured’s objections to a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and granted a property insurer’s motion to dismiss, agreeing with the magistrate judge that the insured’s complaint, which seeks coverage for property damage caused by a storm, fails to state sufficient facts to support a breach of contract claim.

  • August 28, 2025

    Transfer Of Coverage Dispute Over Fire, Chemical Damages Not Warranted, Judge Says

    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas federal judge denied a motion to dismiss or transfer an insurer’s suit to another division of the Texas federal court after determining that the environmental remediation company failed to show that the federal division where the insurer filed its declaratory judgment suit is improper or inconvenient.

  • August 25, 2025

    Texas Panel Conditionally Grants Mandamus To Toss Fine In Auto Crash Coverage Row

    EASTLAND, Texas — A Texas appellate court conditionally granted a petition for writ of mandamus filed by the Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association (TPCIGA) seeking to compel a lower court judge to withdraw a monetary sanction of $6,000 for the association’s purported failure to comply with lower court orders in an auto accident coverage dispute, finding that the lower court abused its discretion in imposing a sanction on the association over which the court lacks personal jurisdiction.

  • August 20, 2025

    Federal Judge: Suits Allege Insureds Intentionally Paid Terrorists; No Coverage Owed

    SHERMAN, Texas — A Texas federal judge held that insurers have no duty to defend against underlying lawsuits alleging that insureds violated the federal Anti-Terrorism Act because the underlying actions assert that the insureds “intentionally made payments” to foreign terrorist organizations and, as a result, do not allege an occurrence under the policies.

  • August 18, 2025

    Texas High Court Refuses To Review Coverage Dispute Over Fatal Shooting

    TYLER, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court refused to review an appeals panel’s ruling that affirmed a lower court’s grant of a homeowners insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment in its declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying wrongful death action.

  • August 14, 2025

    Texas Says Lilly Violated State Law To Induce Providers To Prescribe Its Drugs

    MARSHALL, Texas — Texas has sued Eli Lilly & Company Inc. in a state court, alleging that the pharmaceutical company violated the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act (THFPA) through programs used to induce providers to prescribe its medications, including its GLP-1 medications Mounjaro and Zepbound.

  • August 13, 2025

    Extracontractual, Breach Of Contract Claims Barred By Statute Of Limitations

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment on breach of contract and extracontractual claims after determining that the claims are barred by the applicable two-year statute of limitations because the insureds filed suit more than two years after the claims accrued.

  • August 13, 2025

    Texas Panel: Insurer Has Justiciable Interest In Homeowner’s Storm Damage Suit

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —A Texas appeals panel conditionally granted in part an insurer and an adjuster’s petition for mandamus relief in a lawsuit arising from storm damage, directing a lower court to vacate its orders granting a homeowner’s amended motion to strike an insurer’s plea in intervention, denying the insurer’s motion to dismiss, denying the adjuster’s motion for reconsideration of its motion to dismiss and denying the insurer’s motion to compel appraisal.

  • August 12, 2025

    Suit Over Airline’s LTD Plan Is Voluntarily Dismissed After Resolution Report

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A putative class complaint that a disabled pilot filed over a May 2024 plan revision that he alleged resulted in underpayment of long-term disability (LTD) benefits was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice on Aug. 11 after the defendants told the Texas federal court in a dismissal motion that the pilot’s union had already gotten the issues resolved through a Railway Labor Act (RLA) dispute-resolution process.

  • August 11, 2025

    5th Circuit Mostly Vacates, Remands Row Over Assignment Of Health Care Claims

    NEW ORLEANS — Concluding in part that the lower court “ignored the Physician Groups’ arguments about ambiguities in contract language and applied the wrong legal standard in determining whether assignments to the Physician Groups were valid,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 8 mostly vacated and remanded summary judgment against health insurance plans in a reimbursement dispute over out-of-network care.

  • August 11, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Dismiss Chemical Company’s Coverage Suit Arising From Explosion

    BEAUMONT, Texas — A federal judge in Texas denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss a sustainable chemical company’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking to obtain coverage for the full value of its business interruption loss caused by an explosion at a Texas plant, finding that the company sufficiently pleaded a right to sue the insurer “based on an implied agreement outside the Reinsurance Agreement.”

  • August 11, 2025

    Insureds Failed To Show Coverage Decision In Storm Damage Dispute Was Unreasonable

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal magistrate judge granted a homeowners insurer’s motion for summary judgment on extracontractual claims alleged by insureds seeking additional coverage for storm damage to their home after determining that the insureds failed to offer evidence showing that the insurer’s coverage decision was unreasonable.

  • August 06, 2025

    Texas Panel: Court Erred In Setting Aside Appraisal Award In Storm Damage Suit

    EDINBURG, Texas — A Texas appeals panel determined that an insured failed to meet his burden to set aside an appraisal award in a coverage dispute over storm damage and, therefore, that the lower court abused its discretion in granting the insured’s motion to set the award aside, vacating the lower court’s order.

  • August 05, 2025

    Bifurcation Of Extracontractual Claims In Storm Damage Dispute Not Warranted

    SHERMAN, Texas — Bifurcation of an insured’s breach of contract claim from the insured’s extracontractual claims is not warranted because the property insurer failed to meet its burden of showing that bifurcation would be economical or that the insurer would be prejudiced if the claims are tried together, a Texas federal magistrate judge said in denying the insurer’s motion.

  • August 05, 2025

    Builder Seeks Reconsideration Of Ruling For Insurer On Defects Arbitration Award

    HOUSTON — A homebuilder seeks reconsideration of a Texas federal judge’s ruling granting summary judgment in favor of its commercial general liability insurer in the builder’s suit seeking indemnification for a $213,000 arbitration award for damages caused by construction defects in a home it built, arguing that the judge erred in finding that the appraisal process discharged the insurer’s obligations as there was no appraisal or appraisal award in the case.

  • August 05, 2025

    Insured’s Counterclaim In Dispute Over Defective Pool Shells Dismissed

    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas federal judge adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss an insured’s counterclaim for promissory estoppel in a dispute over coverage for defective pool shells damaged by a chemical reaction between alkalis in the cement and silica, overruling the insured’s objection that the magistrate judge misapplied the legal standard governing promissory estoppel claims.