Bill Text: TX SB39 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Relating to civil liability of a commercial motor vehicle owner or operator.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 3)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2025-04-29 - Referred to Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence [SB39 Detail]

Download: Texas-2025-SB39-Engrossed.html

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By: Birdwell, Hagenbuch S.B. No. 39
Hinojosa of Nueces

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to civil liability of a commercial motor vehicle owner or
operator.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 72.054(a), (b), and (f), Civil Practice
and Remedies Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) In [Except as provided by Subsection (d), in] a civil
action under this subchapter, an employer defendant's liability for
damages caused by the ordinary negligence of a person operating the
defendant's commercial motor vehicle shall be based only on
respondeat superior if the defendant stipulates, within the time
provided by Section 72.052 for filing a motion to bifurcate, that,
at the time of the collision, the person operating the vehicle was:
(1) the defendant's employee; and
(2) acting within the scope of employment.
(b) If [Except as provided by Subsection (c), if] an
employer defendant stipulates in accordance with Subsection (a) and
the trial is bifurcated under Section 72.052, a claimant may not, in
the first phase of the trial, present evidence on an ordinary
negligence claim against the employer defendant, such as negligent
entrustment, that requires a finding by the trier of fact that the
employer defendant's employee was negligent in operating a vehicle
as a prerequisite to the employer defendant being found negligent
in relation to the employee defendant's operation of the vehicle.
This subsection does not prevent a claimant from presenting
evidence allowed by Section 72.053(b).
(f) Nothing in this section prevents a claimant from
pursuing:
(1) an ordinary negligence claim against a [an
employer] defendant [for a claim], such as negligent maintenance,
negligent repair, negligent loading, or another similar claim, that
is based on the defendant's independent act of negligence that does
not require a finding of negligence by the [an] employee who was
operating the defendant's commercial motor vehicle as a
prerequisite to the [an employer] defendant being found negligent
for its conduct or omission, or from presenting evidence on that
claim in the first phase of a bifurcated trial; or
(2) a claim for exemplary damages under Chapter 41 for
an employer defendant's conduct or omissions in relation to the
collision that is the subject of the action, or from presenting
evidence on that claim in the second phase of a bifurcated trial.
SECTION 2. Sections 72.054(c), (d), and (e), Civil Practice
and Remedies Code, are repealed.
SECTION 3. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
only to an action:
(1) commenced on or after the effective date of this
Act; or
(2) pending on the effective date of this Act and in
which the trial, or any new trial or retrial following motion,
appeal, or otherwise, begins on or after the effective date of this
Act.
(b) In an action commenced before the effective date of this
Act, a trial, new trial, or retrial that is in progress on the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law applicable to the
trial, new trial, or retrial immediately before the effective date
of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.