§ 84.008.Severability

A severability clause, and a thorough one.

If any clause or provision of this chapter or its application to any person or organization is held unconstitutional, the invalidity does not affect other clauses, provisions, or applications that can be given effect without the invalid one, and shall not affect or nullify the remainder of the Act — the effect being confined to the clause or provision held invalid. To that end the Act is declared to be severable.

The provision covers as-applied holdings as well as facial ones. "Or its application to any person or organization" is the clause doing that work, and it is the more likely scenario: a limitation of liability upheld generally may still be unconstitutional applied to a particular claimant.

The condition is that the rest can be given effect without the invalid part. Severability is not automatic; a court must be able to operate the remainder coherently, and a provision so central that removing it leaves an unworkable scheme is not saved by this clause.

The concern behind it is real for this chapter. A statute capping what an injured person may recover invites constitutional challenge — under the open courts provision of the Texas Constitution and on due process and equal protection grounds — and the chapter contains several distinct limits, each independently vulnerable.

Without severability, a successful challenge to one could take the whole Act with it, and every charitable organization in Texas would lose its protection at once.

Declaring severability expressly also removes a question of legislative intent. A court asked whether the Legislature would have enacted the remainder without the invalid part has its answer in the text.