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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mostyn Law denied appraisal in hail suit, firm attorney previously testified process is an insurer’s ‘trump card’

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DALLAS – Mostyn Law’s bid to force an appraisal in a client’s hail lawsuit was recently shut down by a district judge – a so called “trump card” that supposedly insurers use “when they want to get out of cases,” according to a firm attorney.

Court records show plaintiffs Martin and Irma Garcia claim a hailstorm damaged their home sometime in May 2013. They waited until Feb. 11, 2014, to report their alleged damage to Safeco Insurance Company, the primary defendant in the lawsuit.

An adjuster found minimal hail damage and wrote an estimate for $266.28, well below the couple’s deductible.

In April 2014, Safeco attempted to invoke the appraisal process under the policy, but Irma Garcia told the insurer to close the claim and that she would call back when she found an appraiser.

A year passed with no word from the plaintiffs, until they filed their lawsuit on April 9, 2015, according to court records.

In February, two months before the case was set to go to trial, Mostyn Law invoked the appraisal process. Safeco objected and the firm filed a motion to compel appraisal on March 14, court records show.

In a twist of irony perhaps, two weeks after Mostyn Law filed its motion to compel appraisal, the firm’s head of litigation, Rene Sigman, testified at a Texas House Insurance Committee hearing on HB 1774 (the hailstorm lawsuit abuse bill), calling the appraisal process a “trump card” that insurance companies use “when they want to get out of cases.”

In her testimony, Sigman also described appraisal as a process where “the homeowner will never be made whole.”

Sigman neglected to mention that Mostyn Law routinely invokes the appraisal process in its lawsuits against insurers.

Last January, Mostyn Law filed a motion to expedite the appraisal process in 62 hail cases against State Farm in Hidalgo County, arguably the birthplace of mass hail litigation.

According to exhibits filed as part of the motion, Mostyn Law invoked the appraisal process in 60 of those 62 cases.

In the Garcias’ lawsuit, the trial court denied Mostyn Law’s motion to compel appraisal on April 10, court records show.

The trial of the hail suit has been pushed back from April to August.

Mostyn Law attorney Gregory Cox represents the Garcias.

Safeco is represented by Mark Tillman, attorney for the Irving law firm Tillman Batchelor.

Filed in Dallas County District Court, cause No. DC-15-04043

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