Tamez v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London

999 S.W.2d 12, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6446, 1998 WL 879644
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 26, 1999
Docket14-96-1484-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 999 S.W.2d 12 (Tamez v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London) 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
Tamez v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London, 999 S.W.2d 12, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6446, 1998 WL 879644 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinions

OPINION

JOE L. DRAUGHN, Justice (Assigned).

This is an appeal from a summary judgment in appellants’ suit seeking damages and proceeds from an insurance policy obtained by National Convenience Stores, Inc. on the lives of its officers and employees. In a single point of error, appellants claim the trial court erred in granting appellees’ motions for summary judgment and in denying appellants’ motion for partial summary judgment. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

[14]*14Facts

Appellants are the families of Ramon Tamez and Cheryl McCarty, both deceased. Tamez and McCarty were employees of appellee, National Convenience Stores, Inc.(NCS), the owners of Stop-n-Go stores. Tamez was killed while in the course and scope of employment at NCS convenience stores. Whether McCarty also died while in the course and scope of employment is in dispute. In 1991, NCS purchased an accidental death insurance policy from appellee, Lloyd’s, through its broker, appellee, Ronald Seaborg, and Seaborg’s company, appellee, International Accident Facilities, Inc. (IAF). The policy, effective from 7/9/91 to 7/9/93, provided that Lloyd’s would pay NCS $250,000 upon the accidental death of any NCS Texas employee killed during the course and scope of employment with NCS. NCS was not a worker’s compensation subscriber.

After Tamez’s death, NCS submitted a claim and was paid $250,000 in proceeds. NCS also submitted a claim after McCarty’s death and received the benefits, but NCS voluntarily returned those proceeds, stating in their briefs that McCarty was not acting in the course and scope of employment at the time of her death. The representatives of Tamez and McCarty filed suit against Lloyd’s, IAF, and Seaborg to recover the policy benefits. Appellants claimed breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, conspiracy, conversion, and violation of the Texas Insurance Code. Appellants subsequently sued NCS, alleging NCS held the policy proceeds in a constructive trust for appellants’ benefit.

Appellants filed a motion for partial summary judgment, asking the court to find appellants were entitled to the policy proceeds. Appellees filed counter-motions for summary judgment, all alleging NCS had an insurable interest in the fives of its employees and was entitled to the proceeds as a proper beneficiary. The trial court entered three orders granting each of appellees’ motions for summary judgment and denying appellants’ motion. Although the orders did not state the bases for the rulings, the trial judge sent a letter to all counsel explaining his rulings.

In their sole point of error, appellants challenge the grant of appellees’ motions for summary judgment and the denial of appellants’ motion for partial summary judgment. Under this broad point of error, appellants raise three arguments: (1) NCS had no insurable interest; (2) appellants were the only lawful beneficiaries; and (3) appellants were entitled to the policy benefits based on their dependent claims of conspiracy, conversion, breach of contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, and constructive trust.

We turn first to appellees’ challenge to appellants’ standing to claim NCS lacks an insurable interest.

Standing

Appellees, NCS and Lloyd’s, argued in their motions for summary judgment, and argue on appeal, that appellants have no standing to challenge NCS’s insurable interest. Citing the treatise, Couch on Insurance, appellees insist it is well-settled that only the insurer can challenge the existence of an insurable interest. 3 Couoh on INSURANCE 3d § 41:5 (1995). Appellants, on the other hand, claim that many Texas cases indicate any interested party has standing to raise the issue of lack of an insurable interest. The cases appellants cite include Empire Life Ins. Co. v. Moody, 584 S.W.2d 855 (Tex.1979), McBride v. Clayton, 140 Tex. 71, 166 S.W.2d 125 (Tex.Comm.App.1942), Drane v. Jefferson Standard Life Ins. Co., 139 Tex. 101, 161 S.W.2d 1057 (Tex.Comm. App.1942), Scherer v. Wahlstrom, 318 S.W.2d 456 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1958, writ ref d), and Covington v. Covington, 271 S.W.2d 849 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1954, no writ). Our review of these cases reveals that none discuss standing, presumably because no one challenged standing. Therefore, these cases do not directly support appellants’ position.

[15]*15Although we have located no Texas cases specifically addressing the issue of standing, there are cases discussing the rights and duties of parties at the time policy benefits are payable. See, e.g., Wilke v. Finn, 39 S.W.2d 836 (Tex.Comm. App.1931). In Wilke, the court stated:

When an insurance company has issued a policy upon the life of a person, payable to one who has no insurable interest in the life insured, or when a policy has been assigned to one having no such interest, the insurance company must nevertheless pay the full amount of the policy, if otherwise liable, because it has so contracted; and it is no concern of the insurer as to who gets the proceeds, except to see that it is paid to the proper parties, under its agreement. It is simply required to perform its contract, and the law will dispose of the money according to the rights of the parties.

Id. at 838. The Wilke court further stated that a person with no insurable interest will hold the proceeds of the policy as trustee for the benefit of those persons entitled by law to receive it. Id. at 837.

A majority of state courts have held that only the insurer can raise the objection of lack of insurable interest. See Couoh on INSURANCE 3D § 41.5 n. 37 (1995). For example, a Michigan court of appeals addressed the issue of standing to complain about an employer’s insurable interest in the lives of its employees in Secor v. Pioneer Foundry Co., Inc., 20 Mich.App. 30, 173 N.W.2d 780 (1969). In Secor, the widow sued to recover the proceeds of an ordinary life insurance policy on the decedent’s life which were paid to his former employer. 173 N.W.2d at 781. The company obtained a $50,000 life insurance policy on the decedent when he began employment and the company was the beneficiary of the policy. Id. After the decedent terminated his employment, the company paid another annual premium on this policy and one month later, the former employee died. Id. The widow claimed the company lost whatever insurable interest it had in the decedent’s life when employment terminated and that a constructive trust should be impressed on the proceeds in favor of the widow and the estate. Id. The court found that the insurer alone had standing to challenge a policy beneficiary’s insurable interest. Id.

Texas cases do not look to whether the beneficiary actually brought on the death of the insured, they base their decisions on public policy. For example, in Wilke, the court restated the rule that it is against public policy to enforce a contract which makes it in the interest of a person to bring about the death of another.

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Bluebook (online)
999 S.W.2d 12, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 6446, 1998 WL 879644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tamez-v-certain-underwriters-at-lloyds-london-texapp-1999.