Opinion ID: 473028
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Employer Negligence Submissions

Text: 21 Appellants contend that Texas law does not permit the consideration of employer negligence when the employee plaintiff, covered under the Texas worker's compensation law, seeks recovery from the third party. As appellants note, in Varela v. American Petrofina Company of Texas, Inc., 658 S.W.2d 561, 562-65 (Tex.1983), the Texas Supreme Court held that in comparative negligence cases the employer's negligence could not be considered to reduce the employee plaintiff's recoverable damages in his suit against a third-party joint tort-feasor. The Varela court reasoned that under Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 8306 (Vernon 1967 and now Vernon Supp.1985), the Texas Worker's Compensation Act, a defendant third party cannot seek contribution from the plaintiff's employer because the employer's liability is limited by statute. Varela also held that a plaintiff employee cannot be considered to have settled with his employer, by receiving worker's compensation benefits, for purpose of Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 2212a Sec. 2(e) (now section 33.015, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code). This reasoning has since been extended beyond comparative negligence cases to products cases based on strict liability in tort. See Foley v. Cox, 679 S.W.2d 58 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1984, no writ). Appellants now seek to extend Varela by claiming that Varela prohibits any consideration of employer negligence for sole cause purposes. 22 However, neither Varela nor any of its progeny imply, much less hold, that a negligent third party may be liable to an employee plaintiff where the employer's acts or omissions are the sole cause of the complained of accident and injuries. Here no claim was made by Phillips for contribution or indemnity against Crown Central, and no interrogatory inquired about any negligence, fault, or tort on the part of Crown Central. The comparative fault interrogatory inquired only of the conduct of Phillips and the four appellants; no inquiry was made concerning Crown Central or any third party or third parties. Hence nothing in the charge violated Varela or any principle of Texas substantive law for which it stands.