§ 102.006.Other Laws Not Affected

A saving clause, and both of its items are essential to reading the chapter correctly.

This chapter does not affect Chapter 101 of this code (the Texas Tort Claims Act) or a defense, immunity, or jurisdictional bar available to a local government or an employee.

The first item keeps the two chapters distinct, and they are easily confused.

The Tort Claims Act creates liability — it waives governmental immunity in defined circumstances so a local government can be sued directly.

This chapter creates none. It permits a local government to pay a judgment already obtained against an employee, and nothing in it makes the government suable.

A plaintiff cannot use this chapter as a route to the public treasury. The claim lies against the employee; whether the government pays is a matter between them.

The second item preserves every defence. Official immunity, sovereign and governmental immunity, statutory notice requirements and jurisdictional bars all survive unaffected.

That matters because the chapter presupposes a judgment. An employee protected by official immunity never reaches a judgment, and the indemnification question does not arise.

So the sequence runs in one direction only: the plaintiff must overcome the immunities, obtain a judgment against the employee, and only then does this chapter have anything to operate on.

The state chapter carries the same saving clause, in the same terms and for the same reason.