Important Recent Case Law for Texas

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 | 0

NEW! Kinabrew v. Inergy Propane, 05-12-01102-CV, (03/10/2014): A Texas appellate court upheld the summary dismissal of an injured worker's retaliation action based on his assertion that his employer had fired him for having filed a comp claim.

NEW! Hudson v. Southern Insurance Co., 05-12-01718-CV, (03/05/2014): A Texas appellate court rejected an injured worker's challenge to his 1% impairment rating and the date set by the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers Compensation, as his date of maximum medical improvement.

NEW! Menchaca v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania, 14-12-01158-CV, (03/04/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that an insurance carrier was entitled to summary judgment upholding the administrative denial of a worker's request for lifetime income benefits since there was no triable question that the worker had not suffered the loss of use of his hands. 

NEW! Morrison v. Whispering Pines Lodge, 06-13-00067-CV, (02/27/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled – despite a vicious dissent – that a nursing home worker's claim against her employer seeking damages for her workplace fall was a Health Care Liability Claim.

Mallory v. Arctic Pipe Inspection Co., 01-12-00979-CV and 01-13-00563-CV, (02/20/2014): A Texas attorney who entered into an agreement with another attorney to perform work on a lawsuit for an injured worker in exchange for a portion of any settlement the worker might receive could not state a viable claim against the payors of the settlement, as a matter of law, for having not included him in the settlement payout. 

City of Houston v. Rhule, No. 12-0721, (02/15/2014): The Texas Supreme Court is standing by its decision to vacate a jury's $127,500 award in favor of an injured firefighter based on his employer' breach of a settlement agreement that had resolved his workers' comp claim from an injury some 16 years prior.

Hand & Wrist Center of Houston v. Maintenance Supply Headquarters, 01-12-00216-CV, (02/04/2014): The workers' compensation exclusive remedy does not apply to health care providers, the 1st District Court of Appeals ruled. 

Seabright Insurance Co. v. Lopez, 04-12-00863-CV, (01/29/2014): A Texas appellate court ruled that a worker who was killed in a multi-vehicle wreck while traveling with two coworkers to a job site, some 450 miles from his home, was in the course and scope of his employment at the time.

Holmes v. Zurich American Insurance Co., 05-11-01579-CV, (01/22/2014): A worker who obtained pre-authorization for his surgery could not obtain a judicial order compelling his employer's insurance carrier to pay for the surgery when there was a dispute about whether the surgery had exceeded the scope of repairing his compensable injury, a Texas appellate court ruled.

Wiley v. American Zurich Insurance Co., 01-13-00345-CV, (01/16/2014): The filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit against an insurance carrier based on its denial of death benefits to an alleged beneficiary of a dead worker did not extend the time the alleged beneficiary had to appeal the administrative determination that he was not, in fact, a qualifying beneficiary of the worker.