Source: https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/2018/06/articles/bad-faith/post-menchaca-is-the-independent-injury-rule-dead-or-alive/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 17:12:55+00:00

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Home Bad Faith Post-Menchaca: Is the Independent Injury Rule Dead or Alive?
Having undertaken to write about “all things Menchaca,” this month is a review of five cases post-Menchaca which contradict one another in deciding whether the independent injury rule is dead or alive. Looking at the first set of cases post-Menchaca, it appears that the answer to that question is a long way off.
Interestingly, both Fuentes and Menchaca involved a trial court’s disregarding specific jury findings in reaching their judgments and both have been remanded for new trial. In Fuentes, the trial court disregarded two jury findings that Fuentes breached the contract and breached it first before State Farm, who was also found to have breached the contract. The Fuentes court remanded the suit to the court of appeals in light of Menchaca. In Menchaca, the trial court disregarded jury question No. 1 in which the jury found that USAA had not failed to comply with its obligations under the policy. The supreme court found that that the trial court erred in disregarding the jury’s answer to question No. 1. The court also held that a plaintiff does not have to prevail on a separate breach of contract claim to recover policy benefits for a statutory violation. Menchaca was remanded to the trial court for a new trial.
In addition to these two appeals, more new cases relying on Menchaca will continue to trickle down and, no doubt, that trickle will bring more new interpretations. It is still too early to definitively declare whether the independent injury rule is dead or alive.
1 Aldous v. Darwin National Assurance Co., No. 16-10537 (5th Cir. May 11, 2018)(emphasis added).
2 See Aldous v. Darwin National Assurance Co., 851 F.3d 473 (5th Cir. 2017).
3 Parkans International LLC v. Zurich Ins. Co., 299 F.3d 514 (5th Cir. 2002).
5 Turner v. Peerless Indemnity Ins. Co., 2018 WL 2709489 (Tex. App.—Amarillo June 5, 2018).
6 Id. at 2018 WL 2709489, at ** 3-5.
7 Id. at 2018 WL 2709489, at *5.
8 Abdalla v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 2018 WL 2220269, at * 5 (Tex. Civ.—Amarillo, May 14, 2018).
9 Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London v. Lowen Valley View, LLC, No. 17-10914 (5th Cir. June 6, 2018).
10 State Farm Lloyds v. Fuentes, No. 16-369, 2018 WL 274919 (Tex. June 6, 2018).
11 Lowen Valley at 8. (emphasis in the original).
12 Fuentes, 2018 WL 2749719, at *2.

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