Transportation Insurance Co. v. Moriel

in which PHILLIPS, Chief Justice, and GONZALEZ, HIGHTOWER, HECHT, ENOCH and SPECTOR, Justices, join.

Respondent’s Motion for Rehearing is overruled. We withdraw our prior opinion and substitute the following in its place.

This case requires us to clarify the standards governing the imposition of punitive damages in the context of bad faith insurance litigation. The parties have asked us to address three issues. First, in a bad faith case, how should Texas courts apply the definition of gross negligence from Burk Royalty Co. v. Walls, 616 S.W.2d 911 (Tex.1981), to determine whether punitive…