The case of Lawyers Title Ins. Corp. v. Doubletree Ptrs., L.P., Download Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. v. Doubletree Partners, L.P. (E.D. Tex. Case No. 4.08cv243 01.20.10 Order of District Judge Adopting Report and Recommendation) and Download Lawyers Title Insurance Corp. v. Doubletree Partners, L.P. (E.D. Tex. Case No. 4.08cv243 12.30.09 Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge) also published as 2010 WL 278877 (E.D. Tex. January 20, 2010)(Westlaw subscription required to access Westlaw) was filed by a title insurance company for declaratory relief regarding "certain policy exclusions, relied upon by Plaintiff in denying the claim," or, alternatively, for reformation to have the title insurance policy reformed to include the exclusions. Id. at *1. The Defendant-Policyholder filed a motion to dismiss and argued for abstention due to a pending State Court proceeding, in part here pertinent.
The Court in that case noted that there are two standards governing abstention in Federal Court. Id. at *2. One standard involves "broad discretion" where only declaratory relief is involved, and another standard, "which is more restrictive," applies when the Federal Court action involves "coercive" or "any non-declaratory claim for relief". Id. The latter standard involves some six (6) factors, id. at *3, all of which were considered and all of which were held to weigh against abstention in that Insurance case. Id. at *3-*5.
The Lawyers Title Insurance decision provides a good source of the factors pertinent to Abstention issues in Insurance Cases.
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