Lawyers are not insurance umpires, South Texas Appeals Court tells judge
State Farm asserted that requiring it to participate in an appraisal with an 'incompetent' umpire that it did not contractually agree to will result in extra costs and delay.
The Thirteenth District Court of Appeals ruled a South Texas county court-at-law judge erred in assigning an attorney as umpire in a property damages dispute between a homeowner and an insurer.
The appeals court for the Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley region, in a response to a petition for writ of mandamus from State Farm Lloyds, instructed the trial court to vacate its appointment of the attorney tasked with representing the homeowner.
The respondent, County Court at Law No. 7 Judge Sergio Valdez in Hidalgo County, did not follow the conditions of the appraisal provision in the insurance policy of Bernardo Vela, the homeowner, the appeals court said.
“(State Farm) asserts that requiring it to participate in an appraisal with an ‘incompetent’ umpire that it did not contractually agree to will result in extra costs and delay,” Chief Justice Dori Contreras stated in the In Re State Farm Lloyds memorandum opinion.
“Relator argues that ‘the appraisal will result in an invalid and nonbinding award purporting to set the amount of the loss for Vela’s insurance claim … which will inevitably require the parties to litigate the validity of that award,’” the opinion states.
Vela filed a claim in July 2022 on damages to his home alleged to have been caused by a hurricane. He asked the court to appoint an umpire under the appraisal provision, and Judge Valdez did so.
The selected appraiser for Vela and the insurance appraiser did not agree on damages, and Vela asked the court to appoint someone else on his behalf. On Sept. 12, Valdez appointed attorney Derek Salinas as Vela’s new umpire/appraiser.
Within a week, State Farm filed a motion to reconsider, but the court denied the motion. State Farm then sought mandamus relief.
The Thirteenth District recognized that the policy requires the umpire be either a licensed or certified engineer, an architect, adjuster or public adjuster, or a contractor with experience and training in the construction, repair, and estimating of the type of property damage in dispute.
“There is no evidence in the record that Salinas meets the foregoing requirements to serve as an umpire, and the record similarly lacks argument or authority in support of such a proposition,” Contreras wrote.
State Farm’s appellate attorneys are Avniel J. Adler at Walker Wilcox Matousek, and Melissa A. Lorber at Enoch Walker.
Vela’s trial attorney is Willie McAllen of Edinburg, Texas.
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