ISSUES:
Duty to Defend
Eight Corners
Groundless, false, fraudulent
Insured exclusion
Motor vehicle exclusion
The Fifth Circuit certified the following question to this Court:
Is the policy-language exception to the eight-corners rule articulated in B. Hall Contracting Inc. a permissible exception under TX law?
No. State Farm did not contract away the eight-corners rule merely by omitting from its policy an express agreement to defend claims that are “groundless, false or fraudulent.”