Dallas Austin

What happens when an insurer does not act reasonably in deciding whether to settle a claim within policy coverage and policy limits?  A federal jury in Houston recently delivered a verdict finding that a primary liability insurer breached its so-called Stowers duty, absolving the excess insurer of any responsibility for an $11.2 million verdict in the underlying liability action. In Westport Insurance Corp. v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Insurance Co., Westport, the primary professional liability insurer for an insurance agency, Insurance Alliance, sought to have the agency’s umbrella insu

Is an employer vicariously liable for a catastrophic car accident when an employee is “coming-and-going” to work?  The Texas Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the general rule and clarified the limits of the “special mission” exception. In Cameron Int’l Corp, an oilfield worker, Mueller, completed his shift with Cameron Int’l Corp. Mueller had been assigned to the “Blue Marlin” jobsite by a contract agency looking for labor to assist Cameron with their operations. Mueller’s supervisor asked him to stay on voluntary standby for potential work at a different site the next day.

On January 1, 2023, we welcomed Matthew Rindt as a partner of Gerstle Snelson.  Matthew practices construction and professional liability law in the Dallas office of our firm.  To let you get to know Matthew a little better, we asked him a few questions.  He was mostly responsive. 1. Why did you choose to practice law? Graduating with an English degree tends to cull down perspective careers post-graduation. I considered becoming a professor or going into marketing. My junior year of undergrad, I worked for a construction lawyer in El Paso, Michael Stell, who was a fantastic attorney and bec

The Texas Legislature has started its 88th Regular Session and as of January 23, 2023, more than 2,150 bills and joint resolutions have been filed.  We examine a few bills that are of particular interest to the design and construction industry. SB 283 – Relating to requiring workers’ compensation coverage for employes of building and construction contractors and subcontractors Summary: Would require all contractors and their subcontractors for a public work project to be covered by workers compensation insurance. HB 1054 – Requiring classification of certain construction workers with th

What happens when a construction-related claim is reported untimely or falls outside coverage of a construction management professional liability policy?  From the policyholder’s perspective, nothing good. The Policies The coverage dispute, recently decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York), involves a general contractor and two Texas projects.  Hunt Construction Group, the contractor, bound two construction management professional liability insurance policies from Berkley Assurance Company.  The policies included the same material terms, but were for

What happens when winter weather disrupts a major airline’s operations and strands thousands of passengers for days on end?  Unlike Southwest Airlines’ planes in December 2022, the first lawsuit regarding the meltdown has arrived early. Tens of thousands of flights were delayed or cancelled during the December holiday break in 2022 because of abnormally cold weather across most of the United States. Southwest Airlines was the most impacted airline and the last airline to resume normal operations. The extensive delays and cancellations by Southwest were attributed to staffing issues and fa

To void coverage, is it necessary for an insurer to prove that a policyholder had an intent to deceive when making material representations in an insurance application? The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear this issue, with potential widespread implications. In 2017, Sergio Arce applied for a life insurance policy with American National.  In response to a question on the application about whether he had ever been diagnosed with or treated for or given medical advice regarding hepatitis C, Sergio answered, no.  However medical records showed that Sergio was diagnosed with hepatitis C in