Texas Transportation Legislative Update – A Bill Seeks To Limit Trucking Liability

Houston, Tex. (May 2025) - Texas' 89th Legislative Session is off to a fiery start this year. On March 13, 2025, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced his second round of priority bills including, among others, Senate Bill 39 ("SB 39"), which is aimed at protecting Texas trucking. The text of the bill is short, but it aims to build upon the traction gained with the passage of House Bill 19, also known as the trucking bill, during the 87th Legislative Session in 2021. SB 39, which was passed by the Texas Senate on April 24 and is now under consideration by the state House of Representatives, amends Section 72 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code in two keys ways.

First, SB 39 adds language to the statutory definition of "regulation or standard" found in Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Section 72.053(a) to include a "policy [and] procedure...including one adopted or promulgated by the owner or operator of the motor vehicle..." This change aims to ensure that in cases where defendant trucking companies have already stipulated to their drivers being in the course and scope of employment, plaintiffs' attorneys can no longer inflame juries with arguments about the trucking companies' actions when they have no causal/legal relationship with the harms alleged. In other words, if a case goes on to trial, then the jury should solely be focused on the actions of the drivers involved in the incident.

Second, SB 39 statutorily recognizes the "admissions rule" by eliminating key exceptions included in the current version of Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Section 72.054(c), (d), and (e). The admission rule makes clear that an "...employer's admission that an employee was acting in the course and scope of their employment when the employee allegedly engaged in negligent conduct bars a party allegedly injured by the employee's negligence from pursuing derivative theories of negligence against the employer." Werner Enters., Inc. v. Blake, 2023 WL 3513843 at *55 (Wilson, J. dissenting) (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] May 18, 2023, pet. filed). The Texas Supreme Court may soon weigh in on this very issue as the Werner Enterprises case was just argued to the Court on December 3, 2024. Notably, the jury in that case delivered a verdict of $116 million against the defendants, including Werner. Through this change, uniformity is brought to Texas law that further comports with the body of caselaw that has developed in the federal courts and other state courts around the country.

If signed into law, SB 39 would apply to any case filed after September 1, 2025, or any case in which trial begins after September 1, 2025.

Supporters of SB 39 point out that plaintiffs' attorneys expressly focus on the actions of the "deep pocket" defendant in litigation, with the goal of inflaming the jury to award nuclear verdicts in cases where the defendant has already stipulated to vicarious liability as to the actions of their drivers. These proposed changes would allow the jury to focus on the individual driver's actions as they consider liability for damages instead of allowing plaintiffs' attorneys to prime juries to award nuclear verdicts. The immediate effect of SB 39 would streamline trial presentation as well as the apportionment of liability done by juries all over Texas. The practical impacts of nuclear verdicts are borne by the Texas public every day in the form of higher insurance premiums, reduced coverage options, and increasing out-of-pocket costs for businesses both small and large all over the state.

Critics of the bill have voiced concerns that this change will further stifle plaintiffs' abilities to ensure that juries consider all parties and trucking companies' own liability in the harms by alleged company misdeeds. It should be noted, however, that these proposed changes to Chapter 72 do not have an impact on plaintiffs' ability to present gross negligence claims or direct negligence claims of improper maintenance against a trucking company defendant.

With the Texas Senate having passed SB 39 and Senate Bill 30, which attempts to place limits on damages awarded by juries in trucking cases, this legislative session may result in some catastrophic changes to Texas trial practice soon.

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