Serpe Andrews is pleased to announce that following a successful Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, granted a complete dismissal with prejudice in favor of our clients—Carriage Place Apartments Houston LLC, Texas Commercial Insurance Specialists MGR LLC, and Dan Kaderka III—represented by Lee Staley and Liza Roys. Century Surety Company v. Carriage Place Apartments Houston, LLC et al., No. 4:24-cv-00992.
Century Surety Company filed suit seeking to rescind a commercial general liability insurance policy issued to Carriage Place, alleging material misrepresentations in the renewal application regarding prior incidents of assault and battery. Century’s suit seeking to rescind the policy it issued to Carriage Place was filed to avoid its coverage obligations to Carriage Place in connection with an underlying lawsuit filed against Carriage Place involving a tenant’s claims of life altering injuries, where the tenant was seeking millions in damages. In addition to Century’s declaratory action seeking statutory rescission under Chapter 705 of the Texas Insurance Code, it Century also alleged common law claims of fraud and negligence against Carriage Place’s policy placing agent.
Our team moved to dismiss all claims, arguing that Century failed to provide timely notice under the Texas Insurance Code, and that the fraud claims and the negligence claims, which were based on essentially the same predicate facts as the fraud claims, lacked the requisite specificity under federal pleading standards.
The Court agreed, finding that Century’s pleadings and exhibits conclusively demonstrated that Century notice of rescission was untimely as a matter of law. The Court also found that Century failed to plead specific facts showing that the Defendants knew of the alleged assaults at the time of the application or that they acted with intent to mislead as required to maintain these claims.
Accordingly, the Court dismissed all of Century’s claims against Serpe Andrews’ clients, bringing a swift and favorable end to a lawsuit with a multi-million-dollar model.
Serpe Andrews is a full-service civil litigation law firm. Based on our deep understanding of the insurance industry and commitment to client advocacy, we continue to deliver outstanding results across all stages of litigation.
