A Texas appellate court recently addressed the applicability of Chapter 95 to protect a landowner from negligence claims brought by a contractor injured while working on-site, finding that a utility company owning an easement qualified as a landowner, and that plaintiff’s counsel had not established the landowner’s actual knowledge of the danger to avoid the protections of Chapter 95.
On August 7, 2025, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas issued its opinion in CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC v. Garett Wilder, No. 01-22-00853-CV, reversing the District Court’s entry of a jury verdict awarding plaintiff Garett Wilder nearly $15.5 million for the injuries he sustained in a 40’ fall from a utility pole owned by CenterPoint.
CenterPoint contracted with Wilder’s employer, L.E. Myers Co. to replace certain step-bolts on a concrete transmission pole located in a public utility easement owned by CenterPoint. Wilder utilized safe climbing practices in his ascension of the pole, but the insert in the pole unexpectedly failed, causing the step-bolt to detach and Wilder to fall 40’ to the ground. Wilder sued CenterPoint for damages in negligence, and was awarded $15,466,597 at trial by the jury. CenterPoint appealed.
CenterPoint argued on appeal that Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 95 applied, and that Wilder did not overcome the presumptions of Chapter 95 necessary to support the jury’s verdict.
Chapter 95 limits a property owner’s liability for the personal injury, death or property damage claims of an independent contractor or its employee arising from the condition or use of an improvement to real property being constructed, repaired, renovated or modified by the contractor.[1] The property owner has the burden of establishing that Chapter 95 applies.[2] Once established, plaintiff must show that both of the exceptions to the protections of...
