§ 107.005.Effect on Other Laws

A saving clause, and it identifies where most claims against the state are brought.

This chapter does not affect a waiver of immunity from suit contained in other law.

Legislative permission is the route of last resort, not the ordinary one. Where a statute already waives immunity, a claimant sues under it and needs no resolution.

The Texas Tort Claims Act is the principal such waiver, consenting to suit for certain injuries caused by motor vehicles, by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property, and by premises defects.

Others are scattered across the codes, including the waiver for adjudication of written contract claims against the state, and the waivers in this code’s own chapters — the municipal regulation chapter and the religious freedom chapter each contain one.

This section confirms that none of them is displaced. A claimant with a statutory waiver does not need permission, and the conditions this chapter imposes do not attach to their claim.

That distinction matters because the conditions are restrictive. A permission resolution reserves immunity from liability and bars punitive damages; a statutory waiver may do neither.

So the first question in any claim against the state is whether a waiver already exists, and the Legislature is approached only if none does.

The section also prevents an argument from silence. A detailed chapter on legislative permission could be read as the exclusive means of suing the state, and this forecloses it.