PJC Business

PJC 102.19

DTPA/I NSURANCE C ODE

PJC 102.19 Misrepresentation—Insurance (Tex. Ins. Code § 541.061) Making any misrepresentation relating to an insurance policy by— 1. making any untrue statement of a material fact; or 2. failing to state a material fact that is necessary to make other state ments not misleading, considering the circumstances under which the state ments are made; or 3. making any statement in a manner that would mislead a reasonably prudent person to a false conclusion of a material fact; or 4. stating that [ insert any misstatement of law ]; or 5. failing to disclose [ insert matters required by law to be disclosed ]. [or] COMMENT When to use. PJC 102.19 may be used with PJC 102.14 to submit a cause of action for any misrepresentation relating to an insurance policy. See Tex. Ins. Code § 541.061 (formerly Tex. Ins. Code art. 21.21, § 4(11)). Use of ‘‘or.” If used with other instructions (see PJC 102.16–102.18), PJC 102.19 must be followed by the word or , because a finding of any one of the acts or practices defined in the instructions would support recovery. Source of instruction. PJC 102.19 is based on Tex. Ins. Code §541.061, which prohibits misrepresentation. Use of statutory language. The supreme court has held that jury submission in this type of case should follow the statutory language as closely as possible but may be altered somewhat to conform to the evidence of the case. Spencer v. Eagle Star Insur ance Co. of America , 876 S.W.2d 154, 157 (Tex. 1994); Brown v. American Transfer & Storage Co. , 601 S.W.2d 931, 937 (Tex. 1980); accord Regal Finance Co., Ltd. v. Tex Star Motors, Inc. , 355 S.W.3d 595, 601 (Tex. 2010) (adopting Spencer and Brown in a UCC article 9 case). Material terms, however, should not be omitted or substituted. See Transport Insurance Co. v. Faircloth , 898 S.W.2d 269, 273 (Tex. 1995) (constru ing Texas Business and Commerce Code section 17.46(b)(23) (DTPA), renumbered in 2001 as DTPA § 17.46(b)(24)). Subparts 4 and 5 of PJC 102.19 submit questions relat ing to misstatements of law and failures to disclose information required by law. It is the Committee’s opinion that these prohibitions require a preliminary determination by the trial court about whether the conduct was a misstatement of law or nondisclo-

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