First American Title Insurance Co. v. Combs

in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON, Justice O’NEILL, Justice GREEN, and Justice JOHNSON joined.

For over a century, Texas has taxed the premiums collected on title insurance policies sold here.1 For almost as long, Texas has imposed an additional “retaliatory” tax when necessary to equalize the tax burdens borne by Texas and foreign-based title insurance companies.2 This system has operated with minimal change until a few years ago when the Comptroller reinterpreted the retaliatory tax statute in a way that sharply increased the tax liability of certain non-Texas title insurers.

Two of those…