Excluded-Driver Status and the At-Fault Driver's Liability for Property Damage

Attorney Answer

Yes. Whether you were an excluded driver on the truck's policy has nothing to do with whether the other driver is liable for the damage. Being excluded is a term of an insurance contract; liability for a crash comes from the driver's own conduct. Those are two separate questions, and an insurance exclusion on your side does not hand the at-fault driver a defense.

Think of it as two layers. The bottom layer is responsibility for the collision — who did what, and whose conduct caused the damage. Texas resolves that by percentage. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003(a) directs the trier of fact to determine the percentage of responsibility, in whole numbers, for each claimant, each defendant, each settling person, and each designated responsible third party, for causing or contributing to cause the harm. Under § 33.001 a claimant whose own percentage is greater than 50 percent recovers nothing, § 33.012(a) reduces a non-barred claimant's damages by that claimant's percentage, and § 33.013(a) makes each liable defendant responsible for its own percentage, subject to the exceptions in (b). Nothing in that chapter turns on the claimant's insurance.

The top layer is insurance, which decides who pays and from which pocket. A named-driver exclusion means the policy does not cover a loss while the excluded person is driving. It can leave the truck's own collision coverage unavailable for this crash and it can expose you personally, but it does not transfer the other driver's responsibility to you.

There is one more thing worth knowing, and it cuts your way and against you at the same time. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051 provides that a person may not operate a motor vehicle in this state unless financial responsibility is established for that vehicle, through a complying liability policy, a surety bond, a deposit, or self-insurance. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.191(a) makes it an offense to operate a motor vehicle in violation of § 601.051, punishable under (b) by a fine of not less than $175 or more than $350, and under (c) by a fine of not less than $350 or more than $1,000 for a person previously convicted; under (d) a court may reduce a first fine below $175 if it determines the person is economically unable to pay. If your exclusion meant no financial responsibility was established for you while you were driving, that is a separate issue from fault, and it is a reason to be careful about what you volunteer to insurers.

One practical note on the property damage itself: the truck belongs to a family member. In general, the person who owns damaged property is the one who owns the claim for that damage, so the owner may need to be the one who presents it, even though you were driving.

What you can do

1. Get a copy of the officer's crash report from the investigating agency. It is an ordinary records request and it fixes the version of events on paper.

2. Have the truck's owner report the damage to the at-fault driver's insurer, since the owner holds the property damage claim, and get the claim number in writing.

3. Photograph the truck's damage before repairs and keep every estimate, invoice and towing or storage receipt.

4. Ask a Texas attorney about your own exposure under §§ 601.051 and 601.191 before you give any insurer a statement about who was driving and under what coverage. That question is worth ten minutes of a lawyer's time.

5. Do not sign a release or accept a final payment from the other driver's insurer until someone has reviewed what it gives up.

*Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — the exclusion endorsement, the crash report and who owns the truck — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.*

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) requires suit for personal injury or for injury to property to be brought not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, so the property damage claim runs on the same two-year clock as an injury claim. Exactly when that period started depends on your facts, and this page will not compute a date. Have a Texas attorney review the dates well before the deadline approaches.