Home Ins. Co. v. Dick

A Mexican insurance company issued a fire policy, governed by Mexican law and requiring suit within one year, covering a tugboat in Mexican waters; the policy was assigned to Dick (plaintiff), a Texan living in Mexico, and New York-based reinsurers Home Insurance and Franklin Fire (defendants) reinsured the risk. After the tug was lost, Dick sued in Texas, and when the reinsurers argued his suit was time-barred under the policy's one-year limit, Dick invoked a Texas statute voiding any contract limitation period shorter than two years; the Texas courts ruled for Dick and rejected the reinsurers' due process challenge to applying the Texas statute.