Important Recent Case Law for Texas

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 | 0

NEW! Adams v. Golden Rule Service, 14-13-00421-CV, (04/24/2014): A health care worker seeking to sue her nonsubscribing employer for injuries she sustained while assisting a patient had to comply with the pleading requirements of the Texas Medical Liability Act, the 14th Court of Appeals ruled.

NEW! Bontke v. Cargill Meat Logistics Solution, 07-12-00328-CV, (04/14/2014): A Texas appellate court upheld a jury verdict rejecting a worker's claims of negligence based on his injuries from being knocked to the ground by a steer while trying to make a livestock delivery.

NEW! Texas Department of Family and Protective Services v. Howard, 05-13-00817-CV, (04/15/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a government agency was entitled to summary judgment in its favor on a worker's claim that it had wrongfully refused to accommodate her disability, but it was not entitled to summary judgment in its favor on the worker's disability discrimination claim. 

NEW! West v. Southern County Mutual Insurance Co., 05-13-00012-CV, (04/10/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that the phrase "domestic employee," as used in a business automobile insurance policy, was not ambiguous and clearly excluded from coverage a worker who was injured in the course of his employment.

NEW! Mungia v. VIA Metropolitan Transit, 04-13-00549-CV, (04/09/2014): An employer that sought to vacate a default judgment against it, as well as a declaratory judgment that the default judgment was void, could not obtain an award of attorney fees under the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, since its declaratory relief claim was duplicative of its challenge to the default judgment, a Texas appellate court ruled.

NEW! Estate of Knetsar v. AAA Asphalt Paving, 01-11-00089-CV, (04/03/2014): The family of a worker killed in an on-the-job accident cannot pursue its gross negligence claim against his employer because the family failed to file a timely response to the employer's motion for summary judgment, a Texas appellate court ruled. 

NEW! McClendon v. Deep East Texas Property Management, 12-12-00331-CV, (03/31/2014): A Texas appellate court rejected an injured worker's claim that he was fired from his job as a property manager in retaliation for pursuing a workers' compensation claim, finding that his supervisor's reference to his claim in explaining why he was being fired didn't establish a causal link between the two events. 

NEW! Lizalde v. Vista Quality Markets, 13-50015, (03/25/2014): A federal appellate court ruled that an injured Texas worker had to submit his claim for compensation to arbitration pursuant to the agreement he had signed when he took his job.

NEW! Fraire v. Budget Rent-a-Car of El Paso, 08-12-00280-CV, (03/28/2014): A Texas appellate court revived an injured rental car agency worker's tort claim against his nonsubscriber employer for failing to provide him with a safe place to work.

NEW! Jacobs v. Huser Construction, 04-13-00211-CV, (03/19/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that the general contractor on a construction project was not liable in tort for the injuries suffered by a subcontractor's employee who fell from a ladder.

NEW! Medina v. Hatch Associates Consultants, 13-12-00490-CV, (03/20/2014): A divided Texas appellate court revived an injured worker's lawsuit against the engineering firm for its allegedly defective design of a pipeline that the worker had been attempting to clear a clog from when he was hurt.

NEW! Elmgren v. Ineos USA, 14-13-00044-CV, (03/20/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a boilermaker who suffered severe burns from a gas line explosion could not assert a viable premises liability claim against the owner of the plant where his injury occurred as a matter of law, but that he could sue the property owner and its employee for negligence. 

NEW! Re Crawford & Co., Patsy Hogan and Republic Insurance Co., 07-14-00013-CV, (03/17/2014): A 2012 Texas Supreme Court decision that barred civil suits for bad faith in administering workers' compensation claims does not necessarily bar actions alleging malicious criminal prosecution, the state's 7th District Court of Appeals in Amarillo ruled.

NEW! Oncor Electric Delivery Co. v. Murillo, 01-10-01123-CV, (03/18/2014): A Texas appellate court rejected a utility provider's challenge to the court's September ruling that the company could be held liable in tort to a worker who suffered a severe shock when he grabbed a cable that was attached to a transformer that had not been shut down.