Rust v. Texas Farmers Insurance Co.

341 S.W.3d 541, 2011 WL 1492014
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 25, 2011
Docket08-10-00128-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 341 S.W.3d 541 (Rust v. Texas Farmers Insurance Co.) 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
Rust v. Texas Farmers Insurance Co., 341 S.W.3d 541, 2011 WL 1492014 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

*544 OPINION

GUADALUPE RIVERA, Justice.

Appellant, Pamela Rust, brought suit seeking medical-payment benefits from Texas Farmers Insurance Company (Farmers) under two homeowner liability policies that it had issued to Frank Kuro-sky, her father. Rust now raises three issues on appeal wherein she complains that the trial court erred when it denied, in its entirety, her hybrid motion for summary judgment and instead, granted Farmers’ competing summary-judgment motion. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Kurosky owned two adjacent lots in Hal-tom City insured by Farmers under separate homeowner liability policies. Kuro-sky resided at the first property, located at 4325 Fossil (25-Fossil property), and was the sole named insured for that property. Kurosky rented the property next door, located at 4333 Fossil (33-Fossil rental property), to his daughter, and both Kuro-sky and Rust were named insureds on that policy.

According to Rust’s affidavit, while she was operating a riding lawnmower at the 33-Fossil rental property, the lawnmower overturned on a steep, unfenced incline at the back of the property, causing her life-threatening injuries and resulting in medical bills in excess of $100,000. Rust’s affidavit alleged that Kurosky never properly instructed her on the safe operation of the lawnmower, and stated that she submitted more than $100,000 of medical bills to Farmers seeking a $5,000 payment under Kurosky’s homeowner’s policy. Rust commenced this suit after Farmers refused to pay Rust’s claim.

Procedure

Rust’s Petitions

In her original petition against Farmers, in addition to seeking to recover damages and other relief, Rust sought: (1) a declaratory judgment regarding the policies’ medical-payment benefits and Farmers’ alleged anticipatory breach of contract; and (2) to demonstrate Farmers’ alleged Texas Insurance Code violations. Rust thereafter filed four amended petitions. Her first amended petition additionally asserted that she should not have been a named insured for the 33-Fossil rental property and sought reformation of the policy to exclude her as a named insured. In her second amended petition, Rust named Ku-rosky as a co-defendant, and sought damages for negligent entrustment of the riding lawnmower without proper instruction and for negligently failing to fence the back portion of the property where Rust fell. In her third amended petition, Rust added a breach-of-contract cause of action for Farmers’ alleged failure or refusal to pay medical benefits as required by the policy provisions, and in her fourth amended petition, which was filed after Farmers had filed its motion for summary judgment, Rust added a cause of action by which she sought to have the trial court determine Farmers’ duty to defend and indemnify Kurosky.

Rust’s Hybrid Motion for PaHial Summary Judgment

After filing her second amended petition, Rust filed a hybrid motion for partial summary judgment. In the no-evidence component of the motion, Rust alleged that Farmers failed to present evidence of any facts that would exclude her claim from coverage “under the subject policy.” 1 In the traditional summary-judgment component of her motion, Rust contended that *545 the 25-Fossil policy, wherein she is not a named insured, provided coverage for her loss occurring at the 33-Fossil rental property and that no valid exclusions applied to such coverage.

Farmers' Motion for Summary Judgment

Farmers filed its own summary-judgment motion and a response to Rust’s summary-judgment motions. In its own summary-judgment motion, Farmers contended that the policies at issue did not cover an insured person’s own injuries, nor a resident’s injuries but rather, only provided coverage for “someone else’s injuries when an insured person is liable.” In sum, Farmers claimed that the policies at issue insured those persons who were named insureds on the policies against premises liability but did not serve to provide coverage for a named insured who suffered bodily injury upon the property identified in the policy’s declarations.

33-Fossil Policy

Regarding the 33-Fossil rental property and the policy relating thereto, Farmers argued that while the policies provided property and liability coverage, they did not cover medical expenses incurred by a named insured or resident at the insured location nor did they cover medical expenses unless the insured person was liable for the bodily injury occurring at the insured location. Therefore, Farmers argued that Rust could not recover medical-payment benefits under the 33-Fossil policy because she was both a named insured and a resident of that insured property.

Reformation of 33-Fossil Policy

Regarding Rust’s request to have the 33-Fossil policy reformed to remove her as a named insured on that policy, Farmers argued that doing so would not entitle Rust to the payment of medical expenses because she admitted she was residing at the 33-Fossil rental property at the time of the accident and the policy for that location expressly excluded bodily-injury coverage for any resident of the residence premises. Farmers also alleged that Rust was not entitled to reformation because she failed, as required, to plead and prove that Farmers originally agreed to issue a policy without her name on it and that a mutual mistake occurred in adding her name to the policy.

25-Fossil Policy

Farmers asserted that although Rust could seek to recover as a third-party claimant under the 25-Fossil policy for which she was not a named insured nor was a resident at the insured location, she could not sue Farmers directly until she established Kurosky’s liability and legal obligation to pay damages to her, a requirement that she had not yet satisfied. Moreover, Farmers contended that Rust was unable to satisfy the requirement because: (1) her injury had occurred at the 33-Fossil rental property rather than at the 25-Fossil property covered by the 25-Fossil policy; and (2) she had not yet pleaded any cause of action involving the adjacent 33-Fossil property under the 25-Fossil policy. Farmers argued that even upon pleading a cause of action against Kurosky based upon his ownership of the 33-Fossil rental, Rust would be unable to sue Farmers directly until she established Kurosky’s liability.

Breach of Contract and Insurance Code Violations

In response to Rust’s anticipatory breach-of-contract allegation, Farmers argued that Rust had failed to claim that it had repudiated its policy before the time for performance as required for such a claim but rather, had claimed that Farmers had delayed performance after she made her claim for medical-payment benefits. Because Farmers only insured Rust against property damage and third-party *546 claims, and because Rust suffered no property damage and no liability claim was made against her, Farmers argued there could be no breach of contract of any kind. Farmers also asserted that Rust lacked standing to sue Farmers directly for unfair insurance claim settlement practices.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
341 S.W.3d 541, 2011 WL 1492014, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rust-v-texas-farmers-insurance-co-texapp-2011.