Justices: Texas Silica Law Trumps Jones Act

On December 5, 2008, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Texas silica law outweighs federal maritime law, including the Jones Act.  The Harris County case was sent to a multidistrict pretrial court.

The lawsuit had been remanded by Pretrial Judge Tracy Christopher of Houston to Harris County district court.  Justices decided that Christopher must take the case back, which has been filed against Global Santa Fe Corp. This decision strengthened a 2005 law that addressed what Texas legislators referred to as an asbestos litigation crisis.

The plaintiff in this Jones Act lawsuit, John Lopez, had hoped the justices would settle jurisdiction according to the Jones Act, which governs job injuries of seamen.  However, he was turned down by all nine of the justices.

Justice Don Willett wrote that "Texas courts are not expected to abandon all their regular rules of practice and procedure and to adopt federal rules in a case simply because a Jones Act claim is alleged."

The 2005 law established a multidistrict litigation panel in order to consolidate asbestos and silica lawsuits from many courts for assignment to judges for pretrial discovery.

The law gives plaintiffs of new cases 30 days to file a physician’s report of a physical examination with medical and occupational histories.  For plaintiffs with pending cases, such as Lopez’s, they could avoid multidistrict jurisdiction by filing a physician’s report within 90 days of the law’s effective date.

After this deadline passed in Lopez’s case, Global Santa Fe sent a notice to the multidistrict jurisdiction that it would automatically transfer Lopez’s lawsuit.

Christopher was asked by Lopez to remand the lawsuit to Harris County.  He argued that Texas law was inoperative because the Jones Act preempted it.  The pretrial judge agreed to remand Lopez’s lawsuit.  Global Santa Fe obtained mandamus relief at the Supreme Court, after it was denied at the 14th District appeals court in Houston.

Read more