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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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