Texas Case Law Update

Monday, October 19, 2015 | 0

NEW! Taylor v. Lubbock Regional MHMR, 07-13-00381-CV, (10/07/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that an injured worker's failure to appeal a ruling excluding his exhibits from evidence was fatal to his appeal of an adverse grant of summary judgment since without the exhibits, there was no evidence to contest the defense motion for summary judgment.

NEW! Brock Services v. Solis, 13-15-00204-CV, (10/08/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that an employer should have been allowed to compel its former employee to arbitrate his retaliatory termination claim.

NEW! In re Time Warner Cable Enterprises, 04-15-00539-CV, (10/07/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a worker who was terminated shortly after telling his supervisor he intended to file a comp claim was not entitled to compel the deposition of his supervisor in order to investigate whether he had any viable legal claims pertaining to his firing.

United Scaffolding v. Levine, 13-14-00377-CV, (09/01/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that civil liability for a worker's injury in falling through a loose board in a scaffold had to come in the form of a negligence claim against the owner of the scaffold, not in a premises liability claim.

Hernandez v. W-S Industrial Services, 13-14-00404-CV, (08/31/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that the employee of a temporary staffing company qualified as the borrowed employee of his employer's client and so his remedy for his injuries while working for the client had to lay in the workers' compensation system.

Douglas v. State, 03-13-00092-CR, (08/26/2015): A Texas appellate court upheld the conviction of a doctor for defrauding the state's largest comp carrier by over-billing for functional capacity evaluations.

In re Texas Alliance of Energy, 09-15-00263-CV, (08/31/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a worker's failure to exhaust his administrative remedies for the alleged mishandling of his comp claim deprived the trial court of jurisdiction to address the issue.

Arnold v. Gonzalez, 13-13-00440-CV, (08/28/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a produce company employee was properly allowed to proceed with his negligence claim against the company president, even though the company subscribed to the comp system, and that the company president could be held jointly and severally liable for the jury's $3 million award of damages.

Katy Springs & Manufacturing v. Favalora, 14-14-00172-CV, (08/27/2015): A Texas appellate court upheld an award of $769,627.02 to a worker for his injuries in a manufacturing mishap, saying there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find the worker's nonsubscribing employer had breached its duty to provide him with a safe place to work.

Texas Health Resources v. Trumbull Insurance Co., 05-15-00813-CV, (08/26/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that the nurse who contracted the Ebola virus while caring for a patient at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas was not entitled to discovery of a note in the claim file for the hospital's insurance carrier discussing the potential coverage under its employer's liability policy.