The Texas Supreme Court recently resolved a split of authority among Texas courts of appeals regarding whether the exemplary damages cap in Section 41.008 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code needs to be pleaded as an affirmative defense or is simply applied as a matter of law. Some courts (2nd, 13th, 14th) had
exemplary damages
11-1 Verdict on Liability Bars Recovery of Exemplary Damages
By Byron Henry on
Posted in Opinions & Judgments
The Dallas Court of Appeals recently held that a jury verdict of 11-1 on negligence bars recovery of exemplary damages based on gross negligence. In this case, the jury returned a verdict against the defendant for negligence by a vote of 11 to 1. Ignoring the predicate instruction to only answer the gross negligence question on an…