Court Opinion

ID: 9762186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:15:09.925525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:31.567274
License: Public Domain

SHANNON, Justice
(concurring).
In connection with appellant’s point that appellees offered no proof that their settlement in the prior suit was reasonable and made in good faith, there seems to be no Texas authority in point. The out-of-state authority seems to be that proof of settlement of the prior case which the insurer refused to defend is presumptive evidence of liability for the amount of the settlement, and the insurer has the burden of showing otherwise. Butler Brothers v. American Fidelity Company, 120 Minn. 157, 139 N.W. 355 (1913); Elliott v. Casualty Assn. of America, 254 Mich. 282, 236 N.W. 782 (1931); contra, Jones v. Southern Surety Co., 210 Iowa 61, 230 N.W. 381 (1929).
I also agree that coverage was afforded by appellant’s policy of insurance. Appellant’s argument is that appellees intentionally took to the borrow material, and as a consequence, that the transaction could not have been an “accident” or an “occurrence” within the terms of the policy. However, the culpable act of appellees was their failure to ascertain the ownership of the tract of land prior to the removal of the borrow material. The entire record indicates that appellees negligently, rather than intentionally, failed to discover that ownership thereby inflicting undesigned and unexpected damage to the owners. In my opinion, such a transaction constituted an “accident” within the meaning of the *297insurance policy and the definition in Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company et al v. Orkin Exterminating Company, Inc., 416 S.W.2d 396 (Tex.1967).