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Mealey's Texas Insurance

  • April 24, 2026

    Texas Panel Upholds Summary Judgment For Insurer On UM/UIM Claim After Hit-And-Run

    DALLAS — A Texas appeals panel found that a trial court did not err in granting summary judgment without a hearing to an insurer in a suit filed by a driver seeking declaratory judgment and damages under his uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM) motorist coverage after a hit-and-run, finding that a live hearing on the matter was not required and “that summary judgment was proper.”

  • April 14, 2026

    Church Insured Appeals Judgment In Favor Of Insurer In Hailstorm Coverage Suit

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A church insured filed a notice indicating that it is appealing a Texas federal court’s final judgment dismissing with prejudice its claims against its commercial property insurer for breach of contract, bad faith, unfair or deceptive acts or trade practices and violations of the Texas Prompt Payment Claims Act in a coverage dispute over hailstorm damage.

  • April 14, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge Ends Case As Motor Carriers, Insurer Settle Cancellation Suit

    MARSHALL, Texas — Following a joint settlement between the parties, a federal judge in Texas closed a case in which three interstate freight motor carriers sued their insurer for breach of contract, bad faith and violations of the Texas Insurance Code for abruptly canceling their policies over allegations that they ran “unscheduled drivers.”

  • April 13, 2026

    Captive Insurance Firm Seeks Refund Of Allegedly Erroneous IRS Promoter Penalties

    SHERMAN, Texas — A tax firm filed an amended complaint in a Texas federal court, seeking to recover refunds and invalidate the Internal Revenue Service’s assessment and collection of promoter penalties based on its captive insurance advisory work, including divisible amounts it paid and additional sums the agency allegedly offset and misapplied to those penalties.

  • April 03, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge Denies Insurer’s Appraisal Motion In Water Damage Claim Dispute

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas federal judge ruled, in denying a motion to compel appraisal, that an insurer’s request for an appraisal following unsuccessful mediation in a dispute with an elderly woman over a water damage claim was “unreasonably delayed” given that it was filed 22 months after the woman filed her claim and 10 months after she filed a federal lawsuit alleging breach of contract, bad faith, violations of the state insurance code and more.

  • April 03, 2026

    Federal Judge Adopts Magistrate’s Report As To Express Contract Exclusion

    SHERMAN, Texas — Adopting a magistrate’s report that an insurance policy’s express contract exclusion unambiguously bars coverage for an underlying breach of contract claim that a homeowners association made against its management company, a federal judge in Texas granted the insurer’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the lawsuit.

  • April 02, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge Denies Insurer Summary Judgment In Years-Long Coverage Dispute

    HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas opined that an insurer seeking summary judgment on claims that an insured couple were not entitled to underinsured motorist benefits in a years-long dispute following a motor vehicle collision did not present sufficient evidence to meet its burden to show that it was prejudiced by the alleged policy violations, failed to show that a policy exclusion applied and was unable to prove that the couple’s counterclaim was time-barred.

  • March 31, 2026

    Texas Panel Reverses Judgment Favoring Owner Of Totaled Car In Suit Against Insurer

    AUSTIN, Texas — The Third District Texas Court of Appealsreversed and remanded an amended final judgment that granted summary judgment in favor of the owner of a totaled Audi for nearly $240,000 plus interest for the value of his car, damages and attorney fees and costs in his suit against his insurer alleging breach of contract and state law claims, finding that the owner failed to conclusively prove the claims as a matter of law and failed to establish the policy terms and independent damage.

  • March 31, 2026

    Pollution And Contamination Exclusion Bars Coverage For COVID-19 Losses, Panel Says

    HOUSTON — An additional insured is not entitled to coverage for business interruption losses caused by quarantine orders issued in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the commercial property policy’s pollution and contamination exclusion bars coverage, the 14th Texas Court of Appeals said March 31 in affirming a trial court’s ruling in favor of the insurer on breach of contract and extracontractual claims.

  • March 27, 2026

    High Court Seeks Response To Certiorari Petition Involving ERISA Estoppel

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 26 asked Texas emergency medicine physician groups that prevailed in a reimbursement dispute over out-of-network care to respond to a certiorari petition in which health insurance plans seek review of a decision they argue “created two deep circuit splits in one fell swoop” by holding “that equitable estoppel under” the Employee Retirement Income Security Act “is not limited only to ambiguous plan terms or exceptional circumstances.”

  • March 27, 2026

    Parties To Mediate Coverage Dispute Suit After Texas Federal Judge Denies Motions

    DALLAS — The insurer and the insured in a federal lawsuit alleging bad faith, breach of contract and other claims in a dispute over whether damage to the roofs of two Texas buildings was caused by a 2021 hailstorm agreed in a March 26 notice “to have a magistrate judge conduct a settlement conference or mediation” for the case, taking up a judge’s offer that was included in an opinion denying a motion for summary judgment and motions to exclude and strike expert opinions and testimony.

  • March 27, 2026

    Texas Panel Says Trial Court Properly Found Insurer Did Not Act In Bad Faith

    AUSTIN, Texas — A trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of an insurer on claims alleging that the insurer violated the Texas Insurance Code by denying the insured’s theft claim in bad faith because the insurer met its burden of showing that a reasonable coverage dispute existed; however, the trial court improperly granted the insurer’s motion on the insured’s breach of contract claim because the value of the insured’s stolen items was not an essential element of the breach of contract claim, the Third District Texas Court of Appeals said March 26.

  • March 26, 2026

    Judge Adopts Report Finding Alleged Defects Fell Under Scope Of Coverage

    SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge in Texas adopted a magistrate judge’s finding that an insurer had not shown that the property damage alleged in an underlying defects suit fell outside the scope of coverage.

  • March 24, 2026

    Judge Grants In Part Insured’s Motion To Compel In Cyber Crime Coverage Suit

    DALLAS — A federal judge in Dallas granted in part an insured’s motion to compel an insurer to provide deposition testimony, answer interrogatories and produce “privileged” documents in a coverage dispute arising from a criminal cyberattack, concluding that the insured has established a possibility that testimony as to underwriting may be relevant to a claim or defense and the insurer has failed to demonstrate that the documents it withheld satisfy the elements of attorney-client privilege or are entitled to work product protection.

  • March 20, 2026

    5th Circuit: Truck Driver’s Claims Against Employer’s Insurer Were Time-Barred

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in an unpublished opinion that claims a commercial truck driver brought against his employer’s insurer for denying benefits after a tire smashed through his windshield while he was driving for work were not barred by res judicata but were time-barred.  Thus, the panel opined that a federal judge in Texas did not err in granting summary judgment to the company.

  • March 19, 2026

    Insurer Argues Appellate Court Should Affirm No Coverage For Homebuilder

    NEW ORLEANS — In its appellee brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a builder’s insurer argues that a federal judge in Texas was right to find that no coverage existed under a policy the insurer provided the builder in a suit the builder filed against the insurer seeking indemnification for an arbitration award for damages caused by construction defects in a home the builder built; the insurer argues that the alleged defects occurred while the builder owned the property and therefore fell under a policy exclusion.

  • March 19, 2026

    Insurer Objects To Finding That Alleged Damage Fell Under Scope of Coverage

    SAN ANTONIO — An insurer objected to a federal magistrate judge in Texas’ finding that the insurer had not shown that the property damage alleged in an underlying construction defects suit fell outside the scope of coverage.

  • March 19, 2026

    Judge Adopts R&R Allowing Insurer’s Claims Against Contractor To Proceed

    AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas issued an order adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation that a construction company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings be denied in a case its insurer brought against it seeking to recover attorney fees the insurer paid in defending subcontractors in an arbitration regarding allegedly negligent hotel designs and construction; the magistrate judge had found that the insurer exclusively paid defense cost claims.

  • March 16, 2026

    Insurer Disputes Texas Federal Magistrate Judge’s Storm Damage Segregation Finding

    EL PASO, Texas — The owner of a Texas apartment complex who filed an insurance claim after his property sustained damage in a wind and hail storm did not prove that the damages were caused solely by that specific storm, the insurer says in objections to a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation stating that the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on breach of contract and state insurance law claims should be denied.

  • March 16, 2026

    Aircraft Insurance Policy Is Ambiguous, 5th Circuit Rules, Reverses Summary Judgment

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a lawsuit seeking recovery of a $6.4 million underlying judgment arising from a rented plane that crashed into a communications tower and caused two fatalities, concluding that the aircraft insurance policy is ambiguous.

  • March 13, 2026

    COMMENTARY: America 250: A History Of Insurance And Insurance Coverage Law And Litigation In The United States, Part 1

    By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Peter J. Lewis

  • March 12, 2026

    Federal Magistrate Judge Says Insured Failed To Show Entitlement To UIM Benefits

    HOUSTON — A Texas federal magistrate judge dismissed an insured’s breach of contract claim without prejudice and abated the insured’s extracontractual claims after determining that the insured has not established that the tortfeasor was at fault for an accident or that he is entitled to underinsured motorist (UIM) benefits under his employer’s auto policy.

  • March 12, 2026

    5th Circuit Finds No Error In Lower Court’s Refusal To Consider Expert Affidavit

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal judge’s ruling that breach of contract and bad faith claims alleged against a homeowners insurer in a dispute over coverage for water damage must be dismissed because the lower court did not err in failing to consider a late-filed affidavit by the insureds’ public adjuster.

  • March 11, 2026

    Filed-Rate Doctrine Bars Class Action Against Allstate, 5th Circuit Affirms

    NEW ORLEANS —The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 10 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurer and denial of the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in their lawsuit alleging that Allstate violated the Texas Insurance Code by charging its longstanding customers higher premiums than new customers for materially identical automobile insurance coverage, agreeing with the lower court that the filed-rate doctrine bars the action because the plaintiffs inherently challenge the reasonableness of the filed insurance rates that were reviewed by the Texas Department of Insurance.

  • March 11, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge: Killer Son Not Entitled To Slayed Father’s Life Insurance Cut

    DALLAS — A federal judge in Texas, in granting an insurer’s default judgment motion, the two other living beneficiary children of a murdered insured’s life insurance policies are entitled to a 34% cut that was originally allocated to the beneficiary son who fatally shot the insured in the head.