Court Opinion

ID: 9766544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:52:37.115842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:23.686085
License: Public Domain

SHANNON, Chief Justice.
Betty Kulubis sued Texas Farm Bureau Underwriters Insurance Company in the district court of Travis County for the proceeds of a homeowners insurance policy insuring a mobile home. After trial to a jury, the district court rendered a take-nothing judgment. This Court will affirm the judgment.
Betty Kulubis and John Kulubis married in 1971. In 1973, Mrs. Kulubis’ parents gave the couple a mobile home. Thereafter, the couple purchased a homeowners insurance policy from Texas Farm Bureau which, among other things, insured against losses from fire and malicious mischief. Both Betty and John Kulubis were named insureds on the policy.
During the early summer of 1982, the parties separated and Mrs. Kulubis filed suit for divorce. Thereafter, on June 25, 1982, John Kulubis telephoned Texas Farm Bureau and ordered the insurance policy cancelled, but the insurance company refused to accept the oral cancellation. John then went on a rampage destroying personal property within and outside the mobile home. On the next day, Kulubis set fire to the mobile home. The fire totally destroyed the mobile home and all of the personal property within. In torching the mobile home and the other property, John Kulubis was not acting for the purpose of collecting the proceeds from the insurance policy.
Sometime after the fire, the parties were divorced. By the terms of the judgment of divorce, Mrs. Kulubis was awarded all of the insurance proceeds, if any, payable under the insurance policy.
Texas Farm Bureau denied liability and refused to pay Mrs. Kulubis’ claim.
Mrs. Kulubis sued on the policy pleading that she was entitled to recover the proceeds of the policy for the loss of the mobile home and its contents which loss resulted from “fire, vandalism, and malicious mischief.”
The insurance company defended the suit pleading affirmatively that the loss was caused by John Kulubis, a co-insured under the policy who intentionally set fire to and destroyed the mobile home and its contents, and that, accordingly, Mrs. Kulubis was barred from recovering on the policy.
In response to the court’s charge, the jury answered that John Kulubis intentionally destroyed the mobile home and its contents. The district court, accordingly, rendered judgment that Mrs. Kulubis take nothing.
By her first point of error, Mrs. Kulubis claims error in the court’s judgment for the reason that she “did not have knowledge of, nor participate in, the destruction of the property.” The point will be overruled.
The fact that Mrs. Kulubis did not know nor participate in the burning of the property has no bearing upon whether she is entitled to recover the proceeds of the policy. The rule in this State since at least 1952 has been that an insured’s intentional destruction of property bars recovery on the policy by his co-insured. Jones v. Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Co., 250 S.W.2d 281 (Tex.Civ.App.1952, writ ref’d); Bridges v. Commercial Standard Insurance Co., 252 S.W.2d 511 (Tex.Civ.App. 1952, no writ); and Western Fire Insurance Co. v. Sanchez, 671 S.W.2d 666 (Tex.*289App.1984, writ ref'd n.r.e.). It is undisputed that John Kulubis is an insured on the policy and the jury found that he intentionally destroyed the mobile home and its contents.
Upon authority of opinions from courts of other states, Mrs. Kulubis suggests that Jones v. Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Co., supra; Bridges v. Commercial Standard Insurance Co., supra; and Western Fire Insurance Co. v. Sanchez, supra, were wrongly decided. She invites this Court to abandon the holdings of the courts of this State and follow in the footsteps of the courts of other states. This Court respectfully declines Mrs. Kulu-bis’ bid and will adhere to the holdings of the courts of this State. The Supreme Court of Texas refused application for writ of error in Jones v. Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Co., supra. When the Supreme Court refuses an application for writ of error, that Court gives full approval to the opinion of the Court of Appeals and makes that opinion as authoritative as one of its own opinions. Biggers v. Continental Bus System, 157 Tex. 351, 303 S.W.2d 359, 364 (1957). Re-examination of an issue, raised and determined in a Court of Appeals’ opinion in which an application for writ of error has been refused, lies solely within the province of the Supreme Court. Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. State, 158 S.W.2d 336, 342 (Tex.Civ.App.1942, writ ref’d).
In Sanchez, the Supreme Court of Texas very recently had the opportunity to re-examine and, if it chose, to change the rule in Jones, supra. Instead, the Supreme Court refused the application for writ of error with the notation “no reversible error.”
Mrs. Kulubis has two other points of error, neither of which is meritorious and each is overruled.
By rendering judgment for Texas Farm Bureau, the district court applied law long approved by the Supreme Court. The duty of this Court, of course, is to do likewise. The judgment is affirmed.