For over 100 years, Royston Rayzor has represented parties who find themselves at odds over the words contained in policies of insurance. The Firm’s insurance coverage attorneys have a vast amount of experience in dealing with first-party and third-party liability policies including: commercial general liability policies; commercial auto policies; commercial first party property policies; employer’s liability policies; employment practices liability insurance policies; maritime protection and indemnity coverage; vessel hull policies; directors and officers liability coverage; errors and omissions policies; and intellectual property insurance products.  The section is involved in the trial and appeal of insurance coverage, bad faith, and Texas Insurance Code issues.  The section also evaluates and provides opinions with regard to virtually all types of ISO and manuscript insurance forms.

Some of the Firm’s recent representative cases include the following:

In re St. Paul. Surplus Lines Ins. Co., 2012 WL 2015796 (Tex. – Houston [14^th Dist.] 2012, pet. dismissed) – The Court of Appeals held that the trial court abused its discretion in denying our client’s motion to sever and stay all extra-contractual claims and ordered those claims to be stayed until  resolution of the underlying coverage dispute.

Willbros RPI, Inc. v. Cont'l Cas. Co., 601 F.3d 306 (5th Cir. 2010) – The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s rulings in favor of our client that a professional services exclusion did nor bar coverage and that the duty to indemnify was not justiciable.  It reversed the decision against our client that "other insurance" provisions in the insurers' policies were not in conflict and remanded the case for apportionment of liability for defense costs.

Ensco Int'l Inc. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, 579 F.3d 442 (5th Cir. 2009) - The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s order of remand not allowing our client to remove the case to federal court.

Lexington Ins. Co. v. Autobuses Lucano Inc., 256 Fed. Appx. 682 (5th Cir. 2007) - The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of our client in an insurance coverage dispute, finding that a bus company was not an insured under primary and excess policies.

Some of the recent articles published by members of the Section include:

Eleven Issues Regarding Contractual Liability Coverage

11 J. of Tex. Ins. Law 2 (Spring 2011)

Robert H. Etnyre, Jr. and Marcus R. Tucker

Insurance Coverage Issues Raised by Typical Contractual Indemnity and Additional Insured Provisions in Oil and Gas Contracts

57 The Advocate 45 (Winter 2011)

Robert H. Etnyre, Jr. and Marcus R. Tucker

The following in-house seminars also have been approved for Continuing Education credit by the Texas Department of Insurance and the insurance departments of some other states:

Contractual Risk Transfer: Indemnity and Additional Insured Provisions Under Texas and Maritime Law – Approved for two hours of Continuing Education credit in Texas, Arkansas, Delaware, and Pennsylvania

Texas Claims Handling Practices – Approved for two hours of Continuing Education credit in Texas