§ 138.002.Civil Action Prohibited

The Texas answer to obesity litigation, enacted in 2005 during a wave of such statutes.

A protected defendant is not liable under any law of this state for a claim arising out of weight gain or obesity, a health condition associated with weight gain or obesity, or any other generally known condition allegedly caused by or likely to result from the long-term consumption of food.

"Any other generally known condition" widens the bar beyond obesity, so it reaches diabetes, heart disease, and the rest of the conditions associated with diet — provided the condition is generally known.

That qualifier is where the bar stops. A condition not generally known to result from consuming a food is outside, which preserves claims about undisclosed risks.

The bar expressly covers two derivative routes: an action brought by someone other than the individual whose condition it is, and any derivative action by a representative, spouse, parent, child or other relative.

Subsection (b) preserves three things. The first is the important one: an action where a manufacturer or seller knowingly and wilfully violates a federal or state statute applicable to manufacturing, marketing, distribution, advertisement, labeling, or sale and the violation proximately caused the injury.

Both elements are demanding. Knowing and wilful violation, and proximate cause between that violation and a weight-related condition — which is a difficult causal chain in a field where diet has many inputs.

Also preserved: actions under the Health and Safety Code food chapter, and actions by the attorney general under the DTPA’s public enforcement provision.

Subsection (c): the section does not create a cause of action.