Allstate Insurance v. Lincoln

976 S.W.2d 873, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 6223, 1998 WL 601347
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 8, 1998
Docket10-97-224-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 976 S.W.2d 873 (Allstate Insurance v. Lincoln) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance v. Lincoln, 976 S.W.2d 873, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 6223, 1998 WL 601347 (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

OPINION

VANCE, Justice.

In this appeal we decide that a determination of the amount of damages is not a prerequisite to “presentment” of a claim leading to an award of attorney’s fees for failure to pay under an underinsured motorist (“UIM”) liability policy.

Yvonna Lincoln was involved in an automobile accident with Rachel Garcia in which Garcia’s vehicle struck the rear of Lincoln’s. Garcia had insurance coverage of $20,000, and her company paid the policy limits before trial. Lincoln sued Garcia for additional damages and joined her own insurance carrier, Allstate, under the UIM provisions of her policy.

The jury found damages of $44,073.33. Because Garcia’s insurance carrier had already paid its $20,000 policy limits, the judgment against Allstate was for $24,073.33 plus prejudgment interest, which Allstate has paid.

In a separate hearing before the court, Lincoln sought attorney’s fees for violations of section 21.55 of the Insurance Code and for breach of the UIM contract. The court denied the Insurance Code claim, but awarded Lincoln $20,000 in attorney’s fees based on the UIM contract, plus additional attorney’s fees for appeal. These amounts were also included in the final judgment.

Allstate does not complain of the jury’s award of damages, which it has paid. It complains that the court erred in awarding attorney’s fees, because there was no “breach of contract.”

[875]*875BREACH OF CONTRACT

Allstate’s first issue argues that, under the language of the UIM policy, a judicial determination of damages is a condition precedent to a claim on which attorney’s fees may be recovered for a breach of contract. Its second issue asserts that there is no evidence or insufficient evidence of a breach of the insurance contract.

The UIM policy provides:

[Allstate] will pay damages which a covered person is legally entitled to recover from the owner-operator of [an] uninsured motor vehicle proposed (sic) by the bodily injury sustained by covered person or property damage caused by the accident.

(Emphasis added.) Allstate argues that its duty to pay under the UIM coverage provision did not arise until there was a judgment determining the amount of damages against the under-insured driver. Thus, Lincoln was not “legally entitled to recover” until she obtained the judgment against Garcia. Only then, it argues, could Lincoln claim that failure to pay would breach the agreement to pay her the balance of her damages.

Lincoln argues that the amount of damages does not have to be determined before a claimant is entitled to assert a claim for attorney’s fees. She argues that liability was not contested, she made demand on Allstate for damages, Allstate did not pay her damages, she was required to go to trial, and the jury found the damages owed.

The recovery of statutory attorney’s fees is set forth in Chapter 38 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Tex. Civ. Pkao. & Rem. Code Ann. §§ 38.001-006 (Vernon 1997). “A person may recover reasonable attorney’s fees from an individual or corporation, in addition to the amount of a valid claim and costs, if the claim is for: ... (8) an oral or written contract.” Id. § 38.001. To recover attorney’s fees under Chapter 38: (1) the claimant must be represented by an attorney; (2) the claimant must present the claim to the opposing party or to a duly authorized agent of the opposing party; and (3) payment for the just amount owed must not have been tendered before the expiration of the 30th day after the claim is presented. Id. § 38.002. Further, Chapter 38 is to be “liberally construed to promote its underlying purposes.” Id. § 38.005.

Allstate cites two UIM cases in which courts of appeals have denied attorney’s fees under section 38.001. In Sprague v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 880 S.W.2d 415 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no writ), Sprague sought to prove liability and damages. The trial court disregarded the jury’s award of attorney’s fees under section 38.001. The court of appeals held that there must be a determination of the amount a claimant is “legally entitled to recover” if the claim is unliquidated. Id. at 417. Thus, the court held that until the jury determines the amount owed, the insurer cannot be said to have failed to tender payment of the “just amount owed.”

In Sikes v. Zuloaga, 830 S.W.2d 752 (Tex. App. — Austin 1992, no writ), Sikes sought to prove liability and damages. The court of appeals held that the “legally entitled to recover” provision creates a condition precedent to any duty to pay under the policy. Id. at 753. Thus, it decided that the UIM insurer is not required to pay until a judgment is rendered specifying the amount of damages the insured has sustained.

However, two courts of appeals have gone the opposite direction. In Novosad v. Mid-Century Ins. Co., 881 S.W.2d 546 (Tex.App. — San Antonio 1994, no writ), the San Antonio Court distinguished Sikes. In Novo-sad, liability was not contested; thus the insurer was obligated to pay, but the amount was in dispute. The court rejected the reasoning that a specific amount of damages must be determined before a claim arises on which attorney’s fees are recoverable, because such a rule would virtually eliminate the recovery of attorney’s fees in any UIM situation. Id. at 552.

In Whitehead v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 952 S.W.2d 79 (Tex.App. — Texarkana 1997, pet. filed) (op. on reh’g), the insurance company argued that attorney’s fees were available only if it refused to pay after the claimants showed themselves to be “legally entitled to recover” from the uninsured motorist. The Texarkana Court rejected the argument that a claim cannot be “presented” [876]*876until the amount of unliquidated damages is determined.

At the hearing on the issue of attorney’s fees, Allstate argued that it was not obligated to pay damages until the jury verdict was final. The court, in discussing the issue, stated:

So the policy of insurance says “If you’re hurt and the other guy doesn’t have insurance or enough insurance, we’ll pay what you’re legally entitled to receive?” And here they haven’t, so a lawsuit results, they get a judgment, and it strikes me that that amounts to a determination that Allstate has breached — I mean they may have done so in perfect good faith from their point of view. They had conceivably a perfectly reasonable argument about why they should not pay, but that’s been determined against them by the verdict of the jury- If [Allstate] is right in [its] interpretation, then in every suit for breach of contract there could be no recovery for attorney fees in the suit arising under the contract unless and until they’re going to pay the judgment for damages for breach of contract.

As in Novosad, liability was not a question at trial.1 881 S.W.2d at 552.

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Bluebook (online)
976 S.W.2d 873, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 6223, 1998 WL 601347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-v-lincoln-texapp-1998.