High Court Mulls Special Orders Doctrine during Oral Arguments

By John P. Kamin, ReporterThe Texas Supreme Court questioned whether a trial court should have defined the specific orders doctrine before allowing a jury to rely on it to increase an injured seaman's award from $210,000 to $420,000, during oral arguments on Thursday.The high court's justices heard arguments in King Fisher Marine Service v. Tamez, which features a dispute about whether an injured worker's award should be reduced from $420,000 to $210,000 because of his own contributory negligence. Jose Tamez, the plaintiff, was injured in 2008 while working aboard the Leonard M. Fi...