Opinion ID: 2451249
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the suit to recover $10,500

Text: The lower courts are in error in holding that Hernandez could have sued Great American for the $56,636 at any time after the date of the judgment in 1961. Under the law as declared by this court in Universal Automobile Ins. Co. v. Culberson, 126 Tex. 282, 86 S.W.2d 727 (1935), no cause of action arose until 1967 when the first payment was made by Hernandez. The insurer's contention then that Culberson could not maintain a suit against it, until and unless he paid the judgment rendered against him in favor of the holder of the first judgment, was overruled by the court of civil appeals (54 S.W.2d 1061) but sustained by this court. In the opinion cited and on rehearing (87 S.W.2d 475) it was made very clear that the insured could not assert a Stowers type cause of action against the insurer until the insured had paid some sum on the former judgment and then only to the extent of his payment. (86 S.W.2d 731). In 1953 this court had before it the case of Linkenhoger v. American Fidelity and Casualty Co., 152 Tex. 534, 260 S.W.2d 884. The question there was whether the two year statute of limitations began to run on the date of the negligence of the insurer or at a time as late as the final judgment in the first suit. Linkenhoger paid the judgment and brought his suit against the insurer within two years after the final judgment but more than two years after the negligent failure to settle. The court of civil appeals rendered judgment for the insurer on the ground that the suit was barred by limitations (257 S. W.2d 718) but this court held that Linkenhoger was entitled to his judgment because limitations had not begun to run in any event until the judgment in the first case became final. The Culberson case was cited as authority for the proposition that the insured could maintain no action against the insurer until he had paid some portion thereof without a word of criticism or limitation of that holding. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has discussed the Texas law on this point at some length, and it correctly concluded that as of the time of the writings Texas was firmly in the prepayment camp. Seguros Tepeyac, S.A., Compania Mexicana de Seguros Generales v. Jernigan, 410 F.2d 718 (1969); Seguros Tepeyac, S.A., Compania Mexicana de Sequros Generales v. Bostrom, 347 F.2d 168, 176 (5th Cir. 1965). Since no suit could have been brought by Hernandez prior to the payment on the judgment in 1967, the statute of limitations could not now be held to have started to run until that date, and the present suit was not barred at the time it was filed.