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Usually more than one company, and rarely only your direct employer. A plant owner, a maintenance or turnaround contractor, a staffing company, an equipment manufacturer and a parts supplier can each carry a share of the fault. Texas law decides each one’s responsibility by a different rule, and the records that prove it already exist. Schiffer Law Firm in Houston represents workers and families after explosions and fires on the Gulf Coast.
The step that cannot wait is preserving the plant’s records. Alarm histories, control room data and shift logs are overwritten on a schedule, damaged equipment is scrapped, and the company’s own investigation starts at once under a claim of privilege. A preservation letter sent in the first days keeps that evidence in existence until someone independent has seen it. Do not give a recorded statement to the plant, the contractor or any insurer before you have talked to a lawyer. Call 713-521-0059.
A process unit does not explode without warning signs, and federal rules require the plant to track them. OSHA’s process safety management standard, 29 C.F.R. 1910.119, applies to processes that hold threshold quantities of highly hazardous chemicals. It requires written process safety information, a process hazard analysis, a mechanical integrity program for pressure vessels and piping, a management of change procedure, and an investigation of each incident that resulted in, or could reasonably have resulted in, a catastrophic release.
Those requirements create records. Maintenance backlogs, deferred turnarounds, alarm logs, management of change files, contractor safety audits and near-miss reports all exist before the fire. When you compare them to what the plant did, you usually find the decision that led to the explosion.
One caution about OSHA. Under 29 U.S.C. 653(b)(4), the OSHA statute does not enlarge or diminish anyone’s civil liability. An OSHA citation is strong evidence of what a careful operator should have done, but it does not by itself win your case. Your case still has to prove negligence under Texas law.
Yes, but Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code sets a high bar. Section 95.003 provides that a property owner is not liable for injury to a contractor’s employee who “constructs, repairs, renovates, or modifies an improvement to real property” unless two things are true. The owner must have exercised or retained “some control over the manner in which the work is performed,” beyond the right to start or stop the work or inspect it. And the owner must have had “actual knowledge of the danger or condition” and failed to adequately warn.
The Supreme Court of Texas reads the chapter broadly. In Abutahoun v. Dow Chemical Co., 463 S.W.3d 42 (Tex. 2015), the court held that “Chapter 95 applies to all independent contractor claims for damages caused by a property owner’s negligence when the requirements of section 95.002(2) are satisfied.” In Ineos USA, LLC v. Elmgren, 505 S.W.3d 555 (Tex. 2016), the court held that the chapter applies only when your injury arose from the same improvement you were working on, and that actual knowledge means the owner knew of the danger at the time, not that it should have known.
For you, that means the contract between the owner and your employer, the owner’s permits and safety meetings, and the owner’s own inspection reports decide whether Chapter 95 protects it. We obtain those documents first.
It depends on whether your employer carries workers’ compensation. If it does, Section 408.001(a) of the Texas Labor Code makes compensation benefits your exclusive remedy against the employer. Section 408.001(b) makes one exception. If a worker dies and the death was caused by the employer’s gross negligence or intentional act, the surviving spouse and heirs may recover exemplary damages. Gross negligence is defined in Section 41.001 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code and must be proved by clear and convincing evidence under Section 41.003.
If your employer does not carry workers’ compensation, you can sue it for ordinary negligence. Section 406.033(a) of the Labor Code then bars it from arguing that you were contributorily negligent, that you assumed the risk, or that a coworker caused the injury. Our page on non-subscriber work injury claims explains that case.
Yes, but only against defendants other than a non-subscribing employer. 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. Below that, Section 33.012(a) reduces your damages by your percentage of responsibility. Plant defendants routinely argue that the injured worker skipped a step in a procedure. Your training records, the permit for the job, and the testimony of the crew answer that argument.
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. Section 16.003(b) gives a wrongful death claim two years from the death. Evidence at a plant disappears far faster than that, which is why the preservation letter comes first.
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.
Refinery and petrochemical explosions cause the most severe injuries we see. Thermal and chemical burns, inhalation injury, hearing loss from the blast, crush injuries and traumatic brain injury are common, often to several workers at once. Many of these cases are also death cases. Our pages on burn injuries, chemical exposure and toxic inhalation and wrongful death claims in Texas cover those claims.
The first step is written notice to keep the records. Then we identify every company on the unit and obtain the contracts and safety records that decide who is responsible under Chapter 95. In a death case we evaluate the gross negligence claim against the employer alongside the claims against everyone else.
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 which records to ask for first and which companies to name.
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 meet Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Section 95.003 requires proof that the plant owner controlled how the work was done and had actual knowledge of the danger that hurt you. The contracts and the owner's own safety records usually answer both questions.
Possibly. Section 408.001(b) of the Texas Labor Code allows a surviving spouse and heirs to recover exemplary damages if the death was caused by the employer's gross negligence or intentional act. Claims against other companies on the site are not affected by the employer's coverage.
No. Under 29 U.S.C. 653(b)(4), an OSHA violation does not by itself create civil liability. A citation is useful evidence of what a careful operator should have done, and you still have to prove negligence under Texas law.
Not before you talk to a lawyer. The plant's investigation is run for the plant, and what you say early shapes the case. Ask for a copy of any incident report and write down your own account while it is fresh.
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 under Section 16.003(b). The records that prove the case can disappear within weeks, so the preservation letter should go out much sooner.