On July 24, 2025, the Texas Eleventh Court of Appeals in Eastland reversed a judgment awarding an old law claimant $750,000 in “bad faith” damages from his workers’ compensation insurance carrier plus attorney’s fees of $75,950.
 
Donald Bristow was permanently paralyzed in a motor vehicle accident in 1990.  Bristow’s claim is considered an “old law” claim because he was injured prior to January 1, 1991 when the new workers’ compensation law took effect.  Therefore, Bristow’s claim is governed by the law that was in effect prior to 1991.
 
In 1993, Bristow and his workers’ compensation insurance carrier, Sentry Insurance, entered into a compromise settlement agreement that included a provision that Sentry would pay Bristow $3,650 per month for Bristow’s ongoing home health care.
 
This case began in 2018 when Sentry Insurance filed a motion to terminate its obligation to pay Bristow for home health care services on the grounds that he no longer needed the services.  Bristow brought counter-claims against Sentry for bad faith claim handling and violations of the Texas Insurance Code. 
 
In 2022, a Nolan County jury awarded Bristow $250,000 in mental anguish damages and $500,000 in additional damages under the Texas Insurance Code.  Sentry appealed the trial court’s judgment partly on the basis that Bristow’s claims are barred by the Texas Supreme Court’s 2012 holding in Texas Mutual Insurance Company v. Ruttiger. 
 
In Ruttiger, the Texas Supreme Court held that the new workers’ compensation law “prescribes detailed, [DWC]-supervised, time-compressed processes for carriers to handle claims and for dispute resolution” and that it contains “multiple, sometimes redundant but sometimes additive, penalty and sanction provisions for enforcing compliance.”  Therefore, the new law “effectively eliminates the need for a judicially imposed cause of action.”
 
Bristow argued that Ruttiger is limited to new law claims and that a 2016 decision holding otherwise from the 14^th Court of Appeals in Houston was wrongly decided.  That case was In Re Illinois Employers Ins. of Wausau (Wausau II).
 
However, the Eastland Court followed Ruttiger and Wausau II and held that Bristow’s statutory and bad faith claims are barred.  The Eastland Court explained that it is the date of the alleged misconduct, not the date of the injury that dictates the applicability of Ruttiger.  You can read the Eastland Court’s decision here.
 
Bristow can petition the Texas Supreme Court to review the Eastland Court’s decision but it may be less likely to hear the case due to its limited impact since it has been over 34 years since the last old law claim.