Opinion ID: 2831296
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cutaia

Text: When this Court first addressed the issue more than forty years ago, we refused to read a prejudice requirement into an insurance contract because “the matter of rewriting the insurance provisions in question is properly within the prerogative of the State Board of Insurance or the Legislature.” Members Mut. Ins. Co. v. Cutaia, 476 S.W.2d 278, 278 (Tex. 1972). Cutaia involved an automobile liability policy that required the insured to “forward any suit papers immediately to the [insurance] company.” Id. The insured failed to comply with this requirement, but “the insurance company stipulated that it had not been harmed by the failure to forward the suit papers.” Id. at 279. Nevertheless, the Court recognized that this prompt-service requirement was a condition 3 precedent to coverage. The Court thus held that the insured’s failure to fulfill the condition negated the insurer’s liability because, “after all, this is what the contract says.” Id.