Court Opinion

ID: 9673603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:15:01.941661+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:23.002146
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
CORNELIUS, Chief Justice.
On rehearing we have concluded that Mr. Burke was entitled to a recovery of attorney’s fees. In a very recent decision, our Supreme Court ruled that attorney’s fees were recoverable under Article 2226, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., in a suit to specifically enforce a contractual obligation to convey real estate. In that case there was no claim for any type of monetary payment or damages, but only a demand that the defendants fulfill their contractual obligation. See Jones v. Kelly, 614 S.W.2d 95 (Tex.1981).
In our case, Mr. Burke prayed for specific performance of Prudential’s contractual obligation to change the beneficiary of his policy and the trial court in its judgment ordered Prudential to comply. It was undisputed that Mr. Burke made the necessary presentment of his demand for performance as required by Article 2226. If a suit to specifically perform a contract to convey real estate authorizes a recovery of attorney’s fees under Article 2226, there appears to be no reason why such a recovery should not be allowed in this suit unless it be considered that the statute excludes all insurance contracts. Upon further consideration we have concluded that, in excluding contracts of insurance companies subject to the Insurance Code’s Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act, the Unfair Competition And Unfair Practices Act, and Section 3.62 of the Insurance Code, the purpose of Article 2226 was to exclude only those claims against insurance companies where attorney’s fees were already available by virtue of other specific statutes, as they are in those which Article 2226 specifically mentions. In view of the Supreme Court’s extension of Article 2226 to suits on written contracts involving other than monetary claims, and in view of the legislative mandate that Article 2226 be liberally construed, we hold that attorney’s fees were properly awarded.
BLEIL, J., not participating.