§ 100.001.Affirmative Defense

A one-section chapter extending the justification defence to a specific security context.

It is an affirmative defence to a civil action for personal injury or death brought against a person performing duties under Article 2A.002(f), Code of Criminal Procedure, the person's employer, or the owner of a commercial nuclear power plant where the person was working, that at the time the person was justified in using force under Chapter 9, Penal Code.

The referenced Code of Criminal Procedure provision concerns security officers commissioned to protect commercial nuclear power plants — armed personnel with law enforcement powers confined to that setting.

Three parties are protected together: the officer, the employer, and the plant owner. That is the chapter's addition — the general civil immunity provision protects only the person who used the force.

Extending it up the chain matters because the security contractor and the plant operator would otherwise face vicarious liability for force the officer was legally entitled to use.

Note the form: an affirmative defence, not immunity. The general provision confers immunity; this confers a defence, which must be pleaded and proved and does not stop the suit proceeding.

The difference is real, though whether it was deliberate is not apparent from the text — the two provisions were enacted eight years apart.