§ 98.005.Joint and Several Liability

A displacement of the proportionate responsibility regime for this claim.

A person who engages in trafficking, or who intentionally or knowingly benefits from participating in a trafficking venture, and is found liable under this chapter or other law for any amount of damages arising from the trafficking, is jointly liable with any other defendant for the entire amount.

Texas is otherwise a several liability state. The proportionate responsibility chapter makes each defendant liable for its own percentage, with joint and several liability surviving only above 50 percent responsibility or for specific-intent concerted felony conduct.

This section overrides that. Any liable defendant answers for the whole, regardless of percentage.

The reason is the structure of trafficking. Responsibility is distributed across a venture — recruiters, transporters, property owners, financiers — and apportioning percentages among them would leave a victim collecting fragments from parties who may be unidentified or insolvent.

"Under this chapter or other law" is a notable phrase. The joint liability attaches to a person who engaged in the described conduct and is found liable on any theory for damages arising from the trafficking, not only to one held liable under this chapter.

The compelled prostitution chapter contains an identical provision, and the methamphetamine chapter both imposes joint liability and expressly disapplies the proportionate responsibility chapter.