The Houston (First) Court of Appeals held that a plaintiff cannot restart the clock on the 120-day deadline to serve an expert report pursuant to Chapter 74.  The plaintiff nonsuited its case prior to the expiration of the deadline.  The plaintiff refiled the suit and filed an expert report within 120-days of the new filing.  Relying on a prior decision, the court held:

"[A]llowing a plaintiff to re-start the period for serving an expert report by non-suiting his claim and then subsequently refiling the same claim effectively expands the expert report peiod well beyond 120 days, which is inconsistent with the policies and goals of the statute.

Consequently, the court of appeals affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiff’s case.  The Court of Appeals’ opinion in Runcie v. Estate of Dorothy Runcie can be found at this link.