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Often more than one company, and the answer depends on who controlled the work. Most industrial injuries on the Texas Gulf Coast happen to a contractor or staffing employee working inside a facility someone else owns. The premises owner, the contractor that directed the work, an equipment manufacturer and a staffing agency can each be responsible under a different rule. Schiffer Law Firm in Houston represents injured industrial workers across Texas.
The step that cannot wait is getting the documents that decide control. The contract between the owner and your employer, the job safety analysis for your task, the permit for the work, and the owner’s incident report all exist on the day you are hurt. Some of them stop existing on a retention schedule. Call 713-521-0059. We will tell you what your case needs and get it started, beginning with written notice to whoever holds the records so they are kept.
The evidence is owned and controlled by the companies you may need to sue. The injuries are usually severe enough that future medical care and lost earning capacity make up most of the damages. And there are usually several insurers at the table, which changes how the case is worked up and negotiated.
There is another difference in Texas. When you work for a contractor on an owner’s site, Chapter 95 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code governs your claim against the owner. That chapter is the reason industrial cases turn on documents rather than on who was standing nearest the hazard.
Control and actual knowledge, both at once. Section 95.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code protects a property owner from liability to a contractor’s employee who “constructs, repairs, renovates, or modifies an improvement to real property.” The protection ends only if the owner “exercises or retains some control over the manner in which the work is performed” and “had actual knowledge of the danger or condition resulting in the personal injury, death, or property damage and failed to adequately warn.” The right to start or stop the work, inspect progress or receive reports does not count as control.
The Supreme Court of Texas explained what control means in Energen Resources Corp. v. Wallace, 642 S.W.3d 502 (Tex. 2022). The owner must have a contractual right to control the means, methods or details of the work, or must actually exercise that control. Safety suggestions that the contractor is free to ignore are not control.
The chapter reaches every negligence theory a contractor’s employee brings against the owner. That includes the negligent activity of the owner’s own employees, under Abutahoun v. Dow Chemical Co., 463 S.W.3d 42 (Tex. 2015), and negligent hiring, under Endeavor Energy Resources, L.P. v. Cuevas, 593 S.W.3d 307 (Tex. 2019).
Two limits work in your favor. In Ineos USA, LLC v. Elmgren, 505 S.W.3d 555 (Tex. 2016), the court held that Chapter 95 applies only when your injury arose from the condition or use of the same improvement you were working on. If you were hurt by a different piece of equipment on the site, ordinary negligence law applies to that claim. The same case held that an individual employee of the owner, such as a plant supervisor, is not a “property owner” under the chapter and does not get its protection.
Yes, if it is not your employer. A general contractor, a turnaround contractor or a service company that directed your work owes you ordinary care. Chapter 95 protects only a “property owner” as defined in Section 95.001(3). Your claim against a contractor other than your employer is a negligence claim, and the same documents that show control also show who was giving the orders.
If the contractor is your employer, the answer turns on workers’ compensation. Under Section 408.001(a) of the Texas Labor Code, compensation benefits are your exclusive remedy against a covered employer. If your employer carries no coverage, you can sue it, and Section 406.033(a) bars it from blaming you, arguing that you assumed the risk, or blaming a coworker. Our page on non-subscriber work injury claims goes through that case.
Against everyone except a non-subscribing employer, yes. Under Section 33.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, you cannot recover if your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. If your share is 50 percent or less, Section 33.012(a) reduces your damages by that percentage. Expect the owner and the contractor to argue that you skipped a step in the procedure. Your training records, the permit and the crew’s testimony are how that argument is answered.
Two years. Under Section 16.003(a) of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a personal injury suit must be filed within two years of the injury. A death claim has two years from the death under Section 16.003(b). Evidence on an industrial site moves much faster than that.
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Staffing arrangements add a defendant and a question. A staffing agency that placed you without training or without checking the site’s safety requirements may be negligent. Whether the agency or the client company counts as your employer for workers’ compensation purposes depends on the staffing contract and the coverage arrangement between them. Texas has specific rules for staffing companies. We read those documents before deciding whom to sue.
We start with the contract and the permit, because in an industrial case they decide who can be held responsible. We identify every company on the site, and the first step is written notice to each of them to keep their records. Then we obtain the training records, maintenance history and root-cause investigation before they are gone.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and families across Texas. We know how Chapter 95 is argued and what evidence answers it.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Yes, if you can prove both parts of Section 95.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The owner must have controlled how the work was done, beyond starting, stopping or inspecting it, and must have actually known about the danger that hurt you. The contract and the owner's own safety records usually decide both.
A contractual right to control the means, methods or details of the work, or the actual exercise of that control. The Supreme Court of Texas held in Energen Resources Corp. v. Wallace that safety suggestions the contractor is free to ignore are not control.
No. In Ineos USA, LLC v. Elmgren, the Supreme Court of Texas held that an individual employee of the owner is not a "property owner" under Chapter 95. A claim against that person is an ordinary negligence claim.
Sometimes. An agency that placed you without training or without checking the site's requirements may be negligent. Whether it or the client company counts as your employer for workers' compensation purposes depends on the staffing contract and the coverage arrangement. We read those documents before deciding whom to name.
Two years from the injury under Section 16.003(a) of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, or two years from the death for a wrongful death claim. Preservation letters should go out within days, because site records are kept on retention schedules.