Louis Rosales, Sr. v. Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company, 672 S.W.3d 146

October 2020 hailstorm damaged Rosales’s property; initial Allstate estimates were below deductible and no payment was made.
Rosales invoked appraisal; the appraisers awarded actual cash value of $14,869.68.
On receiving the award, Allstate paid $11,751.68 (ACV minus deductible) and an additional $1,408 intended to cover any TPPCA interest; Rosales did not dispute the interest payment amount.
Rosales sued alleging breach of contract, bad faith, and violations of the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act (TPPCA); case was abated for appraisal and later litigated.
Allstate obtained summary judgment on contract and bad-faith claims and moved for summary judgment on the TPPCA claim, arguing its prepayment of the appraisal award and interest left no money judgment and thus—under Chapter 542A’s fee formula—no recoverable attorney’s fees.
The trial court granted final summary judgment (grounds not specified); on appeal Rosales challenges only the TPPCA attorney-fees ruling.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Allstate’s prepayment of the appraisal award plus statutory interest bars recovery of attorney’s fees under §542A.007	Rosales: Barbara Technologies and other authorities prevent prepayment from extinguishing a TPPCA fee claim	Allstate: §542A.007 ties fees to the amount awarded on the policy; paying appraisal + interest reduces the judgment amount to $0 so fees = $0	Court: Held for Allstate — payment of appraisal award and all possible interest leaves no awardable policy damages, so §542A.007 yields $0 in attorney’s fees and Allstate is entitled to summary judgment
Whether Barbara Technologies controls this outcome	Rosales: Barbara Tech forbids treating an appraisal payment as eliminating TPPCA remedies	Allstate: Barbara Tech was decided before Chapter 542A and is distinguishable; Chapter 542A’s explicit fee formula controls	Court: Distinguished Barbara Tech — appraisal payment alone doesn’t always foreclose TPPCA relief, but under Chapter 542A the statutory fee formula produces zero fees once the policy award and interest are paid
Whether the no-evidence summary-judgment grounds require reversal	Rosales: contends Allstate presented no evidence on TPPCA compliance issues	Allstate: contends Rosales produced no probative evidence	Court: Not reached — traditional summary-judgment ruling disposing the appeal rendered consideration of no-evidence grounds unnecessary

Barbara Technologies Corp. v. State Farm Lloyds, 589 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. 2019) (payment of an appraisal award alone does not automatically eliminate a TPPCA claim)
JCB, Inc. v. Horsburgh & Scott Co., 597 S.W.3d 481 (Tex. 2019) (Texas Supreme Court allowed pretrial payment of disputed amounts to reduce statutory-multiple damages; judgment measured at time of verdict)
United States v. Bornstein, 423 U.S. 303 (U.S. 1976) (Supreme Court decision rejecting similar ‘‘gamesmanship’’ argument under a federal statute; discussed and distinguished)
Painter v. Amerimex Drilling I, Ltd., 561 S.W.3d 125 (Tex. 2018) (summary-judgment standards cited for reviewing traditional SJ)