§ 108.002.Limitation of Liability

The cap, and both of its conditions must be satisfied before it applies.

Except in an action arising under the constitution or laws of the United States, a public servant is not personally liable for damages in excess of $100,000 arising from personal injury, death, or deprivation of a right, privilege, or immunity, on two conditions.

The federal exception is the first thing to notice, and it is decisive in practice. Most claims against public officials for deprivation of rights are brought under federal civil rights law, and the cap does not touch them.

A state cannot cap liability created by federal law, so the exception states what would be true anyway.

The first condition is course and scope: the damages must result from an act or omission in the course and scope of the public servant’s office, employment, or contractual performance for or service on behalf of a state agency, institution, department, or local government.

The second is coverage, and it is the essential one. For the amount not in excess of $100,000, the public servant must be covered by the state’s obligation to indemnify, a local government’s authorization to indemnify, liability or errors and omissions insurance, or such coverage under an interlocal agreement.

The bargain is explicit. A claimant is assured of recovering the first $100,000 from a solvent source, and in exchange the official is protected above it.

An uncovered official gets no cap at all. That is worth stating plainly: the protection depends on the coverage existing, and a local government that declines to indemnify leaves its officials exposed without limit.

Subsection (b) applies the same structure to property damage, on the same $100,000 figure and the same four coverage sources.