# Allstate Insurance Co. v. Watson

> Texas Supreme Court · January 12, 1994 · 37 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 408

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776615

## Case

- **Full name:** ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. Kathleen G. WATSON, Respondent
- **Court:** Texas Supreme Court
- **Decided:** January 12, 1994
- **Citations:** 37 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 408; 876 S.W.2d 145; 1994 Tex. LEXIS 126; 1994 WL 6788
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Spector
- **Judges:** Enoch, Spector, Doggett, Phillips, Gonzalez, Hightower, Hecht, Cornyn, Gammage
- **Cited by:** 111 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776615

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that insurers do not owe third party claimants statutory first party duties, such as good faith and fair dealing, under the insurance code or for insurance based DTPA actions
- holding that third parties who assert claims based on liability of insured, but are not named as additional insured, do not have direct cause of action against insurers
- holding that an insurer owes no duty of good faith to third-party claimants under the Insurance Code, without reaching the question of a possible common-law duty
- finding that insurers cannot have duties to non-insureds in claims handling because “insur- ers would be faced with owing coextensive and conflicting duties”
- holding that third-party liability claimant cannot maintain direct action against defendant=s liability insurer under either DTPA or the Insurance Code

## Opinion text

SPECTOR, Justice,
concurring.
Nov. 24, 1993
I concur in the Court’s judgment, but not its opinion. I would hold that a third-party *151 claimant may proceed directly against an insurer once the claimant has established that the insured has a legal obligation to pay damages to the claimant. See State Farm County Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ollis, 768 S.W.2d 722, 723 (Tex.1989); Great American Ins. Co. v. Murray, 437 S.W.2d 264, 265 (Tex.1969). Once Kathleen Watson has obtained a judgment or settlement against the insured, she is entitled to recover for any damages she has sustained as a result of Allstate’s unfair or unlawful acts or practices. Tex.Ins. Code art. 21.21, § 16(a).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9776615. Public record. Not legal advice.