Court Opinion

ID: 9654712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:48:15.844045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:12.718064
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
The allowance of attorney’s fee is urged as error by appellee, and appellant urges that we should also allow the statutory twelve per cent penalty. The penalty, if allowable, must be grounded upon a demand, and the mere filing of a petition asserting the penalty does not suffice. Rio Grande Nat. Life Ins. Co. v. Bailey, Tex. Civ.App., 153 S.W.2d 493.
After Robie Scott’s wife died, he went in person to the insurance company’s office in Corpus Christi and told the general agent that his wife had been killed, and that he wanted to make a claim under the policy for whatever benefits were due. He had with him some “undertaker papers,” but the general agent refused to accept them/' The general agent did not state that the company refused payment, but advised the claimant to consult an attorney for advice. No payment was made, and about one year later suit was filed. Demand may . be oral instead, of written. Pan-American Life Ins. Co. v. Terrell, 5 Cir., 29 F.2d 460. While the demand was the bare minimum of what was required, it was enough. It was an assertion of a right under the terms of the insurance policy. As stated in the definition used in National Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Dove, 141 Tex. 464, 174 S.W.2d 245: “It does not matter in what terms the demand may be couched. The substance of it is that there is an assertion of a right and a demand for the recognition and performance of the obligation on which such right rests.”
Appellee’s motion for rehearing is overruled, and appellant’s, motion to reform the judgment and award appellant the twelve per cent statutory penalty is granted.