§ 41.002.Applicability

The scope provision, and it claims a great deal of ground.

The chapter applies to any action in which a claimant seeks damages relating to a cause of action. It establishes the maximum damages that may be awarded, including an action for which damages are awarded under another law of this state. Where another law sets a lower maximum, that lower figure governs instead — this chapter is a ceiling, not a floor.

Subsection (c) is a supremacy clause. Except as provided by the maximum-damages and exclusion subsections, the provisions of this chapter prevail over all other law to the extent of any conflict. A statute elsewhere in Texas law authorising exemplary damages does not escape the standards and cap in this chapter merely by saying so.

Four exclusions, stated notwithstanding anything to the contrary: the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act in Section 15.21 of the Business & Commerce Code; the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, except as specifically provided in Section 17.50 of that Act; Chapter 36 of the Human Resources Code, the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act; and Chapter 21 of the Insurance Code.

What the four have in common is that each contains its own damages multiplier or penalty structure — treble damages, additional damages, civil penalties — enacted for a specific enforcement purpose. Subjecting them to this chapter's cap would have undone those schemes.

The DTPA exclusion is qualified rather than complete: it applies except as specifically provided in Section 17.50, so that Act's own cross-reference controls where it speaks.