Important Recent Texas Case Law

Thursday, September 4, 2014 | 0

NEW! Williams v. Riverside General Hospital, 01-13-00335-CV, (08/28/2014): A nursing assistant's two workplace falls were not Health Care Liability Claims subject to the pleading requirements of the Texas Medical Liability Act, the state's 1st District Court of Appeals ruled.

NEW! Warren v. BP Products North America, 14-13-00564-CV, (08/28/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that three injured workers could not be compelled to release their claims against their alleged injuries from a release of harmful chemicals at a BP refinery.

NEW! Augusta Barge Co. v. Five B's Inc., 01-13-00092-CV, (08/26/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a maritime employer was entitled to contribution from a third party, proportionate to that third party's fault in causing a towboat collision that resulted in injuries to a deckhand.

NEW! Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Estate of Gutierrez, 01-12-01029-CV, (08/21/2014): A Texas appellate court upheld a $1.19 million award in favor of the family of a railroad worker who died from complications related to the surgical repair of his broken leg.

NEW! SORM v. Ribble, 03-12-00084-CV, (08/2014): Texas claimant attorneys say the 3rd District Court of Appeals’ ruling that sovereign immunity shields government agencies from attorney fee awards in workers' compensation disputes deprives public sector workers of a fair day in court.

NEW! Western Dairy Transport v. Vasquez, 08-13-00175-CV, (07/30/2014): An injured mechanic was a "transportation worker" exempt from the control of the Federal Arbitration Act, a Texas appellate court ruled.

NEW! Hernandez v. Texas Department of Insurance, 04-14-00123-CV, (07/30/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that an injured worker's claim seeking declaratory judgment based on the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act for the Division of Workers' Compensation to follow the laws and rules applicable to DWC cases was properly dismissed.

NEW! Davis v. Texas Mutual Insurance Co., 05-12-01715-CV, (07/2013): The children of a Texas worker who died while on a business trip to New York are not entitled to an award of benefits for his fatal accident, the 5th District Court of Appeals ruled.

Zurich American Insurance Co. v. Debose, 01-13-00344-CV, (07/15/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that an insurance carrier did not waive its ability to contest the compensability of a worker's degenerative knee condition after it accepted liability for an injury to her knee from a workplace fall. 

CHCA West Houston v. Shelley, 14-13-00499-CV, (07/15/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a secretary's negligence suit, based on her slip and fall at the hospital where she worked, was a health care liability claim subject to the pleading requirements of the Texas Medical Liability Act.

Shelby Distributions v. Reta, 08-13-00193-CV, (07/09/2014): A Texas appellate court upheld a jury's finding that an employer had discriminated against a worker by firing him the day after he reported an on-the job injury accident.

In re Lewis Casing Crews, 11-14-00137-CV, (07/10/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a defendant in a personal injury claim filed by an oil rig worker should have been allowed to designate the worker's employer as a responsible third party.

In re Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co., 04-14-00254-CV, (07/02/2014): An agreement between a permanently disabled worker and his employer's insurance carrier to bring treatment disputes in a specific district court did not eliminate the obligation of the worker to first exhaust his administrative remedies, a Texas appellate court ruled.