Court Opinion

ID: 9771953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:03:14.596243+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:40.446562
License: Public Domain

WILSON, Justice
(concurring).
The policy “parts” mentioned contain 128 lines of small type, much of which cannot be construed as a “particular exception to the general liability” which the insurer is required by Rule 94, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to “specifically allege”. That Rule states the insurer shall “not be allowed to raise” such issues unless it so “specifically” alleges the “particular exception”. The “parts” of the policy contain provisions which are not exceptions, limitations or exclusions, and the exceptions have not at all been specifically alleged.
While the appellate court may not be authorized to reverse the judgment where there is a sham pleading which “violates the spirit and letter of the Rule” in an attempt “to frustrate the intended purpose *768of the Rule , as the Supreme Court said m the Sherman case, it is authorized to affirm here because the Rules states the insurer shall “not be allowed to raise the issues” in such situation. In the Sherman case, the Supreme Court had no point or asserted error on which it could reverse, and it obviously did not feel empowered to reverse “upon its own motion”, as the dissenting opinion suggested. The only question there presented to the Supreme Court was “who has the burden of proof?”. Here, we are authorized to affirm for the reasons stated.
Any other decision can lead to an absurdity. On logic, an insurer could as well allege it relies on and alleges as a defense “every provision, exception, limitation and exclusion contained in the policy”; and on appeal point to one obscure exception which it contends plaintiff failed to negate. It could then with equal force and reason urge that it had “specifically alleged” that exception. I concur in the opinion, but I would affirm because the insurer did not attempt to meet the very minimum prerequisite of Rule 94, and the purported allegation of exceptions relied on should be disregard as “violating both its spirit and its letter”.