Second Court of Appeals | Case Summaries

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of July 8, 2013

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Little v. Delta Steel, Inc., No. 02-12-00201-CV (July 11, 2013) (Livingston, C.J., joined by McCoy and Gabriel, JJ.).: Held: A decedent's spouse's application for and acceptance of workers' compensation benefits over a long period of time precludes appellants, comprising appellant's family members and his estate, from denying the decedent's employer's workers' compensation coverage, from contesting the applicability of the exclusive remedy provision of section 408.001(a) of the labor code, and from pursuing a negligence claim against the employer. The employer's parent company, however, had a duty to use ordinary care to provide a safe workplace to the decedent because the parent company assumed the primary responsibility for the employer's workplace safety.

In re J.T.W., No. 02-12-00430-CV (July 11, 2013) (Gabriel, J., joined by Livingston, C.J.; Dauphinot, J., concurs with opinion).: Concurrence: I would affirm the trial court's judgment based on Appellant's pleas of true to two of the allegations and avoid relying on hearsay within hearsay and polygraph evidence.

Noteboom v. Farmers Tex. Cnty. Mut. Ins. Co., No. 02-12-00441-CV (July 11, 2013) (Gabriel, J., joined by Dauphinot and Meier, JJ.).: Held: Trial court erred by holding Appellee was not obligated to pay Appellants' damages for the post-repair, diminished value of Appellants' car after accident with uninsured motorist. Unambiguous policy language and the parties' stipulated facts obligated Appellee to pay for Appellants' damages for cost of repairs, loss of use, and diminished value as calculated based on a comparison of the car's value before the accident and after the repairs.