Yes. Texas law lets you file an auto insurance claim after a family member causes a crash. But the family relationship can limit both the underlying legal claim and how much insurance money is actually available. Four separate issues can come into play: the Texas guest statute, a family-member or household exclusion in the applicable insurance policy, personal injury protection (PIP) coverage, and uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage.
Can You Make a Liability Claim Against a Family Member?
Yes, but Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 72.001, commonly known as the Texas guest statute, can limit that claim when the family member was riding along for free.
The statute applies when all of the following are true: the injured person was being transported in the vehicle as a guest, without paying for the ride, over a public highway in Texas, and is related within the second degree by blood or marriage to the vehicle’s owner or its driver. That degree is computed under Texas Government Code Chapter 573, and in practice it generally covers a spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild, along with the same relationships created by marriage, such as a stepchild or a parent-in-law.
When the guest statute applies, ordinary carelessness is not enough. The injured passenger cannot recover on a standard negligence claim. Recovery requires proof that the accident was intentional, or that it was caused by heedlessness or reckless disregard of the rights of others. This heightened standard protects the owner of the vehicle as well as the person driving it, which means it can apply to a relative who owned the car but was not behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
The statute reaches only a guest who was riding in the vehicle. If a family member is injured while riding in a different vehicle, walking, or bicycling, or if the family member paid for the ride, § 72.001 does not apply, and the claim is evaluated under ordinary negligence rules instead.
If a liability claim is available under these rules, the next question is which policy responds to it and how much of that coverage is actually available.
How Does Liability Insurance Work When a Family Member Causes the Crash?
Liability insurance generally pays covered damages that an insured driver becomes legally responsible for causing, up to the policy limits and subject to the policy’s terms and exclusions. Coverage is a separate question from liability, and it comes second: if the guest statute applies, the injured relative must first meet its higher standard before any policy limits matter. Once liability is established, one policy term matters more than any other when the injured person is a relative of the insured — the family-member exclusion.
A family-member exclusion is a clause that blocks liability coverage for a claim brought by one family member against another. Insurers adopted it on the argument that paying claims between relatives would invite fraud and collusion, and versions of the clause remain in use in Texas automobile liability policies.
The Exclusion Does Not Reach Every Relative
This is the part people miss. Texas auto policies usually define a “family member” as a person who lives in your household and is related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption. Living in the same home is part of the definition, not an afterthought.
That means the exclusion turns on living arrangements, not just the family tree:
- A brother who lives across town is generally not a “family member” under his sister’s policy. The exclusion does not reach his claim, and the full liability limits may be available.
- A brother who lives in his sister’s home generally is a “family member.” The exclusion applies.
Policy wording varies from one insurance company to the next, so the definition printed in the actual policy is what controls. An insurer that denies a claim simply because two people are related, without showing they shared a household, may be reading its own policy too broadly.
How Far the Exclusion Can Go
Texas courts have limited how far this exclusion can go. In one case, a man crashed his truck and his wife, who was riding with him, was hurt. She sued him, and his insurance company refused to pay. It pointed to the family-member exclusion in his policy. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion went too far. An insurance company cannot use it to push coverage below the minimum amount Texas requires every driver to carry. A year later, the court explained exactly where that protection stops. Below the state minimum, the exclusion does not apply. Above it, the company can still use the exclusion to deny coverage.
Many Texas policies now write that limit directly into the exclusion, so the clause itself says it does not apply to the minimum coverage the state requires.
The controlling question, then, is not whether a family-member exclusion appears in the policy. It is whether the injured person fits the policy’s definition of a family member, and if so, whether enforcing the exclusion would push liability protection below the floor set by Texas Transportation Code § 601.072: $30,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person in one collision, $60,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more people in one collision, and $25,000 for property damage. This is commonly called 30/60/25 coverage.
The practical consequence is that the number on the declarations page may overstate what is actually available. If a policy carries $100,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and a family-member exclusion applies, the injured relative should not assume the full $100,000 can be recovered. The exclusion may cut the available coverage back to the $30,000 state minimum, even though a larger number appears on the declarations page. Reading the policy’s actual definitions of “family member” and “insured” is the only way to know how much coverage remains.
Can PIP Pay Benefits When a Family Member Causes the Accident?
Yes. Personal injury protection, or PIP, is separate from liability coverage, and it can pay benefits even when a family relationship limits the liability claim.
Under Texas Insurance Code § 1952.152, every Texas auto liability policy must include PIP unless someone named on the policy rejects it in writing. Under § 1952.151, PIP covers the named insured, people who live in the insured’s household, and authorized drivers or passengers of the insured’s vehicle. Under Texas Insurance Code § 1952.153, an insurer does not have to offer more than $2,500 in total PIP benefits per person, so $2,500 is the standard amount, though a policy can provide more.
PIP can pay qualifying medical bills and, in some cases, part of the injured person’s lost income and the cost of hiring help for household tasks the person can no longer do. Because PIP pays without regard to who caused the crash, a family member hurt as a guest passenger may still have a PIP claim even when the guest statute blocks an ordinary negligence claim.
There is a useful contrast here. Living in the same household is what pulls a relative into PIP coverage. It is also what pushes that same relative out of liability coverage under a family-member exclusion. One household definition, two opposite results.
Can UM/UIM Coverage Apply to a Family-Member Accident?
Sometimes. But first it helps to know whose insurance UM/UIM is.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage — UM/UIM for short — is not part of the at-fault driver’s insurance. It is coverage the injured person carries on their own auto policy. It pays when the driver who caused the crash does not have enough insurance to cover the harm. So when a relative is hurt as a passenger, the question is not only what the driver bought. It is also what the injured passenger bought.
Most Texas drivers have this coverage without thinking about it. Under Texas Insurance Code § 1952.101, an auto policy sold in Texas must include UM/UIM coverage unless someone named on the policy turns it down in writing. It is worth pulling out the policy and checking, because people often do not remember rejecting it.
A family-member exclusion does not automatically turn the at-fault car into an uninsured or underinsured vehicle. Whether UM/UIM applies depends on several things:
- which vehicle was involved;
- whether the injured person counts as an insured under the policy they are claiming on;
- how much of the driver’s liability coverage can actually be collected; and
- how that policy defines an uninsured or underinsured vehicle.
So the fact that an insurance company pointed to a family-member exclusion does not, by itself, create a UM/UIM claim.
One Fact Matters More Than Most: Who Lives With Whom
The same household definition that controls the family-member exclusion also controls UM/UIM coverage. That is why living arrangements can decide the whole claim.
Say Maria is hurt riding in her son David’s car when he causes a crash. Her medical bills come to $95,000. David’s policy has $100,000 in liability coverage.
If David does not live with Maria, she is not a “family member” under his policy. The family-member exclusion does not apply to her claim. His full $100,000 in liability coverage is on the table, and her $95,000 in bills fits inside it. She may never need to use her own UM/UIM coverage at all.
If David does live with Maria, she is a “family member” under his policy. The exclusion cuts what his liability coverage will pay down to the $30,000 state minimum. That leaves $65,000 of her medical bills unpaid.
Maria would then look to the UM/UIM coverage on her own policy. But most Texas policies say that an uninsured or underinsured motor vehicle does not include a car owned by, or regularly available to, you or a family member in your household. David’s car is exactly that. So the same living arrangement that triggered the exclusion in his policy can also block Maria from using her own UM/UIM coverage for this crash.
That is why these claims are harder than they look. The $30,000 minimum can turn out to be the most that auto liability coverage will pay, and the rest of the bills have to come from somewhere else — PIP, health insurance, or another policy that happens to apply.
What Are Common Auto Claims Involving Family Members?
The way a family-member claim works can change depending on where the injured person was, which vehicle was involved, and who lived with whom. Common situations include the following.
A Spouse Is Injured While Riding With the Other Spouse
When one spouse is injured as a nonpaying passenger with the other spouse, the Texas guest statute can determine what must be shown to establish liability. If a liability claim is available, the next step is to determine whether a family-member exclusion limits the driver’s liability coverage and whether PIP provides separate benefits.
Spouses who live together will almost always fall inside the policy’s household definition, so the exclusion usually applies and the state minimum limits may be all that the liability coverage pays. Spouses who are separated and living in different homes may not fit that definition, which can change the answer. The policy language and the living situation on the date of the crash both matter.
A Child Is Injured While a Parent Is Driving
The Texas guest statute can also apply when a child is injured while riding as a nonpaying passenger with a parent. A child living in the parent’s home will also fit the policy’s household definition, so a family-member exclusion will usually apply to the liability claim as well.
A Relative Is Injured in Another Vehicle
If a family member is injured in a different vehicle, the Texas guest statute generally does not apply, because the relative was not being transported as a guest in the family member’s vehicle.
A family-member exclusion is a different question. It does not depend on where the injured person was sitting. It depends on whether that person fits the policy’s definition of a family member, which usually means sharing a household with the insured. A father struck at an intersection by his son’s car may still run into the exclusion in his son’s policy if the two live together, even though he was never a passenger.
A Family Member Is Driving Someone Else’s Car
More than one insurance policy may be relevant when the family member who caused the accident was driving a vehicle owned by someone else. The vehicle owner’s policy, the driver’s policy, permissive-use provisions, and other-insurance clauses can all affect which coverage applies.
Household definitions matter here too, and they are measured separately for each policy. A family-member exclusion in the vehicle owner’s policy looks at the owner’s household, not the driver’s. So an injured passenger who is related to the driver but is a stranger to the owner may not trigger the exclusion in the owner’s policy at all.
What Should You Review Before Accepting a Coverage Denial?
Do not rely on the insurance card or the declarations page alone. Review the full policy for these items:
- the bodily injury and property damage liability limits;
- how the policy defines “family member” and “insured,” including any requirement that the person live in the insured’s household;
- the exact wording of any family-member or household exclusion;
- PIP coverage or a signed written PIP rejection;
- UM/UIM coverage or a signed written UM/UIM rejection;
- how the policy defines an uninsured or underinsured motor vehicle, including any language excluding vehicles owned by or available to the household;
- permissive-use provisions, for accidents involving a borrowed vehicle;
- other-insurance provisions, when more than one policy could apply; and
- any endorsements that change the standard policy terms.
If the insurance company has denied or reduced the claim, also review the denial or reservation-of-rights letter. It should identify the policy provision the insurer says limits or eliminates coverage.
What if the Insurance Company Denies the Claim Because You Are Related to the Driver?
If the insurer denies or limits the claim, start with the reason stated in the denial or reservation-of-rights letter. Identify whether the insurer is disputing the driver’s legal liability, applying a family-member or household exclusion, or denying a separate coverage such as PIP or UM/UIM.
Then compare the provision the insurer cited with the policy definitions, endorsements, coverage limits, and Texas insurance requirements. Three questions are worth asking about any denial based on a family relationship:
- Does the injured person actually meet the policy’s definition of a family member, including the requirement of living in the household?
- Is the insurer denying coverage entirely, when the exclusion cannot reach the state minimum limits?
- Is the insurer treating one denial as if it resolved every coverage question, when PIP and UM/UIM are separate?
Even today, insurers sometimes deny these claims in full under a family-member or household exclusion. The reason the insurer gives, and the exact policy language it relies on, are more useful than the fact of the denial itself.
Talk With Bailey & Galyen About a Family-Member Auto Claim
An accident involving relatives can create insurance questions that do not arise in every Texas car accident. The Texas guest statute, family-member exclusions, liability limits, PIP, and UM/UIM coverage can each affect a different part of the claim.
If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident involving a family or household member, Bailey & Galyen can review the circumstances of the collision, the applicable insurance policies, and any denial or coverage limitation issued by an insurer. Contact Bailey & Galyen to schedule a consultation and discuss your legal options.
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