§ 38.0015.Recovery of Attorney's Fees as Compensatory Damages

A 2021 addition sitting alongside the general fee statute, and the distinction it draws is a fine one that matters.

A person may recover reasonable attorney's fees from an individual, corporation, or other entity from which recovery is permitted under the general fee section as compensatory damages for breach of a construction contract as defined by Section 130.001.

Fees as damages, not fees as costs. That is the point. Where a party incurs legal fees as a consequence of another's breach — defending a claim brought because the contractor failed to perform, for instance — those fees are a loss caused by the breach rather than the cost of prosecuting this suit. The section confirms they may be recovered on that footing in the construction context.

Subsection (b) forecloses the obvious over-reading. The section may not be construed to create or imply a private cause of action or independent basis to recover attorney's fees. It does not add a ninth category to the general fee statute. The claim must already exist, and recovery must already be permitted against that defendant.

The cross-reference to Section 130.001 matters: the definition of "construction contract" there governs, so whether an agreement qualifies is answered in that chapter rather than this one.