Winstead and Oldenettel & McCabe Secure Take-Nothing Commercial Insurance Defense Verdict

© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.By Natalie Posgate (May 5) – When a commercial insurer faces litigation, the last desired option is usually to fight its case in front of jurors – who often have a negative perception of insurance companies. But recently, a group of Houston attorneys proved otherwise to their Texas insurer clients. On April 21, attorneys from Winstead and Oldenettel & McCabe secured a take-nothing defense verdict for Landmark American Insurance Company and King-Phillips Insurance Agency. The plaintiff, Houston-based Westview Drive Investments, claimed Landmark and King-Phillips had acted in bad faith and misrepresented it had full coverage when the leasing office of an apartment complex that WDI owned burned down to the ground in November 2008. Landmark and King-Phillips only provided mortagee coverage, which covered the costs to rebuild the leasing office, so WDI sued and argued that the defendants owed approximately $5 million in actual and punitive damages after refusing to also cover the costs to replace various items lost in the fire, such as routine office equipment, maintenance equipment to make repairs in units and valuable paperwork on current and previous tenants.“The crux of the matter was about what was represented to the plaintiff before the…