Texas Car Accident Verdicts & Landmark Cases

$352.7 million — once the largest actual-damages verdict for an injured worker in Texas history

At Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), a fueling van struck a United Airlines “wing walker” wearing a bright vest and carrying signal wands, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. A Harris County jury found the fueling company 70% at fault for failing to train its driver.

Why it matters to your case: Texas places no statutory cap on non-economic damages in ordinary negligence cases, so juries here can fully value a catastrophic injury — and a company’s failure to train its drivers is its own form of negligence.

Source: Insurance Journal — $352.7M Harris County verdict

997 S.W.2d 584 — damages reduced 50% for the victim’s own fault

A man was killed when his truck rolled backward after he left it running and out of park. The jury found a transmission defect but assigned him 50% of the fault for skipping the owner’s-manual safety steps.

Why it matters to your case: Under Texas’s 51% bar (CPRC § 33.001), if you’re found more than 50% at fault you recover nothing, and at 50% or less your award is reduced by your share — so the percentage an insurer tries to pin on you is worth fighting hard.

Source: FindLaw — GM v. Sanchez (Tex. 1999)

$89M+ verdict — reversed on proximate-cause grounds (June 27, 2025)

After another driver lost control on ice and crossed a median into a Werner 18-wheeler, a jury awarded a family more than $89 million. In 2025 the Texas Supreme Court reversed, holding the truck driver didn’t proximately cause the crash.

Why it matters to your case: Defendants now cite Werner to argue their conduct wasn’t a “substantial factor,” so your case has to tie the at-fault driver’s specific actions to the crash — not just their presence on the road.

Source: Texas Supreme Court, No. 23-0493 (2025)