Damages a Family May Recover in Austin, TX Economic, Noneconomic and Statutory Limits

The jury awards an amount, then divides it

Section 71.010 directs the jury to award an amount proportionate to the injury resulting from the death and to divide that award into shares among the entitled individuals who are alive at the time. Each beneficiary's share rests on that person's own proof, which is why a spouse, an adult child living out of state and a dependent parent may receive very different amounts from the same verdict. Section 71.004 confines those beneficiaries to the surviving spouse, children and parents.

The vocabulary the statute uses

Section 41.001 defines economic damages as compensatory damages for actual economic or pecuniary loss, and then enumerates noneconomic damages in a list that runs from physical pain through mental or emotional anguish, consortium, disfigurement and impairment, on to companionship and society, inconvenience, enjoyment of life and reputation, closing with all other nonpecuniary losses of any kind. The same section defines future loss of earnings to include loss of income, wages or earning capacity and loss of inheritance. Exemplary damages are neither economic nor noneconomic under subsection (5), which is why they are analyzed separately.

The estate's losses are a different column

A recovery for the deceased person's own pre-death losses belongs to the survival action under section 71.021, which carries the injury claim to the heirs, legal representatives and estate. Medical charges incurred before death, conscious pain and mental anguish suffered by the person, and lost earnings during the injury period sit there rather than in the family's claim. Because the two claims answer to different owners, a settlement that does not allocate between them creates problems later in probate.

Creditor protection, and where it does not reach

Section 71.011 provides that damages recovered in a wrongful death action are not subject to the debts of the deceased. A survival recovery, by contrast, is an estate asset and moves through the estate's claims process. Where a hospital lien, a funeral balance or credit card debt exists, that distinction determines how much actually reaches the family, and it is one reason allocation is negotiated rather than left implicit.

Statutory ceilings that override the evidence

Three ceilings recur. Against a governmental unit, section 101.023 limits recovery to $250,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence for the state and a municipality, and $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for other local government units. In a health care death claim, section 74.303 caps all damages at $500,000 per claimant, indexed to the CPI-W from August 29, 1977, while exempting necessary medical, hospital and custodial care expenses, and section 74.301 caps noneconomic damages at $250,000 per claimant per defendant category.

Fault percentages reduce what is collectible

Section 33.013 generally holds a liable defendant responsible only for the percentage of damages matching its percentage of responsibility, with joint and several liability where that percentage exceeds 50 percent or the conduct falls within the narrow felony list. Section 33.003 has percentages assigned in whole numbers to claimants, defendants, settling persons and designated responsible third parties, and section 33.001 bars recovery where a claimant exceeds 50 percent.

What a defendant may not argue about a spouse

Section 71.005 allows evidence of an actual ceremonial remarriage of a surviving spouse where true, while prohibiting the defense from directly or indirectly mentioning or alluding to a common-law marriage, an extramarital relationship or the surviving spouse's marital prospects. Where a share is payable to a minor, chapter 142 of the Property Code and the county's own rules on withdrawing registry funds come into play. This page is general information rather than legal advice about any family's losses, and the attorney who advertises here is the person to ask.