§ 72.052.Bifurcated Trial in Certain Commercial Motor Vehicle Collision Actions

The procedural core of the subchapter, and the split it makes is different from the general bifurcation rule.

On motion by a defendant, the court shall provide for a bifurcated trial. The motion is due by the later of 120 days after the defendant files its original answer, or 30 days after a claimant files a pleading adding a claim against that defendant.

The first phase determines liability for and the amount of compensatory damages. The second phase determines liability for and the amount of exemplary damages.

Compare the general bifurcation provision in the damages chapter, where the first phase decides liability for both compensatory and exemplary damages and only the amount of exemplary damages moves to the second. Here, liability for exemplary damages moves as well.

That is a substantially larger separation, and it is what the subchapter is for. Evidence of a carrier's hiring, training, and safety record — the material that supports a gross negligence claim — is kept out of the phase deciding whether the driver was negligent.

Subsection (e) supplies the bridge between phases. A first-phase finding that an employee defendant was negligent in operating the employer's vehicle may serve as a basis for the claimant to proceed in the second phase on a claim against the employer, such as negligent entrustment, that requires such a finding as a prerequisite.

So the direct-negligence claims against the company are not lost — they are deferred, and the first-phase finding unlocks them.