§ 95.002.Applicability

The applicability provision, and it has two requirements that must both be met.

The chapter applies only to a claim:

(1) against a property owner, contractor, or subcontractor for personal injury, death, or property damage to an owner, a contractor, or a subcontractor or an employee of a contractor or subcontractor; and (2) that arises from the condition or use of an improvement to real property where the contractor or subcontractor constructs, repairs, renovates, or modifies the improvement.

The second requirement is the one litigated. The claim must arise from the condition or use of the improvement being worked on. An injury on the premises unconnected to that improvement is outside the chapter, and the ordinary premises rules apply.

That distinction decides whether the demanding liability standard in the next section governs, so a claimant will argue the injury arose from something other than the improvement under construction, and an owner will argue the opposite.

The class of claimants is closed: owners, contractors, subcontractors, and their employees. A member of the public injured at a construction site is not covered, nor is a visitor, nor an employee of the property owner.

The four work verbs — constructs, repairs, renovates, or modifies — cover the range of construction activity. Note that routine operation or inspection is not among them.