In the case of Hudson Insurance Co. v. BlaMar Trucking Inc. et al., case number 1:22-CV-00096, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the court will hear testimony and receive evidence and answer the question of whether or not Hudson Insurance Company has a duty to defend its policyholder based on the policy’s exclusion clause.
Hudson Insurance Co. claims that a trucking company that it insured is not covered under its policy which involved an underlying personal injury lawsuit that was filed by one of its employees. In its complaint, Hudson argued that the recent Texas Supreme Court ruling (also known as the “8 Corners Rule”) allows an insurer to introduce “extrinsic evidence” into the record in order to argue against the insurer’s “duty to defend” coverage.
Hudson’s attorney, Ken E. Kendrick of Sutter & Kendrick PC, argued in his amended complaint filed on Thursday that it has extrinsic evidence that will show that the personal injury lawsuit that was filed against the policyholder, BlaMar Trucking Inc. and one of its employees, a driver for the company, was actually initiated by a separate employee of the trucking company, which according to Hudson, triggered them to invoke the policy exclusion, essentially refusing to defend the trucking company or its employee in the personal injury action filed against them.
