Court Opinion

ID: 9654930
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:54:47.8852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:14.745869
License: Public Domain

Justice GONZALES,
joined by Justice ENOCH, concurring.
If we were construing section 38.006 for the first time today, the statute’s plain language would compel me to conclude that it exempts insurers from liability for attorney’s fees in a breach of contract suit. See Tex. Crv. Prac. & Rem.Code § 38.006. But, as the Court observes, we do not write on a clean slate. Twenty years of precedent, from this Court and the courts of appeals, hold to the contrary.
The doctrine of stare decisis is integral to our common-law system of decision making, promoting efficiency, fairness, and legitimacy. See Weiner v. Wasson, 900 *6S.W.2d 316, 320 (Tex.1995). I recognize that the rule of stare decisis cannot be absolute, and there may be compelling reasons to reject prior precedent as untenable. See Dawkins v. Meyer, 825 S.W.2d 444, 453-54 (Tex.1992) (Gonzalez, J., dissenting) (noting that stare decisis does not render the law immutable). But there are no compelling reasons here to overrule the long line of decisions interpreting section 38.006. The dissent gives the best reasons available for not following Burke. Yet those reasons do not persuade. The dissent discounts our writing in Burke, apparently because it was not clear, and in Barnett, because it decided the availability of attorney’s fees under Section 38.001 without extensive discussion. See Barnett v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 723 S.W.2d 663, 667 (Tex.1987); Prudential Ins. Co. v. Burke, 621 S.W.2d 596, 597 (Tex.1981) (per curiam). Yet the dissent concedes that every court of appeals to directly address the issue of attorney’s fees in insurance contract cases for the past twenty years has followed Burke.
“[I]n the area of statutory construction, the doctrine of stare decisis has its greatest force.” Marmon v. Mustang Aviation, Inc., 430 S.W.2d 182, 186 (Tex.1968). If the Legislature did not intend to broadly except insurance companies from liability for attorney’s fees when they breach their contract with an insured, that policy choice does not appear from the plain language of Section 38.006. But after twenty years of court decisions that the exception is not that broad, there is no indication that the Legislature disagrees. Certainly, enacting statutes is within the unique province of the Legislature, and as to statutes, the ultimate interpretation is within their hands. See Marmon, 430 S.W.2d at 186.
Consequently, despite the plain language of section 38.006, I concur with the Court’s opinion and judgment.