Opinion ID: 1449946
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Constitutionality of Applying Article 4590i to a Survival Claim

Text: Auld asserts that the court of appeals erred in reducing her recovery because the cap in article 4590i does not apply to claims for a malpractice victim's personal injuries, citing Lucas v. United States, 757 S.W.2d 687 (Tex.1988). In Lucas we held that article 4590i's cap on damages was unconstitutional when applied to a common-law claim. See id. at 690. Auld argues that the cap's unconstitutional application to common-law personal-injury claims cannot be severed from its arguably constitutional application to survival claims, thereby rendering the cap void as to both types of personal injury claims. Horizon argues that Auld's complaint is an open-courts challenge, and, because she cannot satisfy the open-courts test, her constitutional arguments against the cap's application fail.