PJC Business

D AMAGES

PJC 115.36

son may not be submitted to the jury without evidence to support the submission. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.003(b). Allowing a case to proceed to trial without including a responsible third party that has been timely designated and should be submitted to the jury has been found to con stitute an abuse of discretion. In re YRC, Inc. , 646 S.W.3d 805, 808 (Tex. 2022) (per curiam); see also In re Eagleridge Operating, LLC , 642 S.W.3d 518, 529–30 (Tex. 2022) (no abuse of discretion in striking responsible third-party designation where there was no duty as a matter of law). Contribution defendants. Inclusion in liability question. If there is a contribution defendant ( Connie Con tributor ), that party’s liability should be determined in a separate liability question. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§33.003, 33.011, 33.016. “Contribution defendant” is defined as “any defendant, counterdefendant, or third-party defendant from whom any party seeks contribution with respect to any portion of damages for which that party may be liable, but from whom the claimant seeks no relief at the time of submission.” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.016(a). Separate comparative question necessary. The responsibility of the contribution defendant should not be included in the question comparing the responsibility of the plaintiff with that of the other defendants. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.016(c). A separate comparative question is necessary. An example of a question on comparative responsibility of a contribution defendant is as follows: If you answered “Yes” to Questions ______ and ______ [ applica ble questions ] for more than one of those named below, then answer the following question. Otherwise, do not answer the following ques tion. Assign percentages only to those you found caused or contributed to cause the [ harm ]. The percentages you find must total 100 percent. The percentages must be expressed in whole numbers. The percent age of responsibility attributable to any one named below is not nec essarily measured by the number of acts or omissions found. QUESTION ______ For each person you found caused or contributed to cause the [ harm ] to Paul Payne , find the percentage of responsibility attribut able to each: 1. Don Davis % 2. Connie Contributor % Total 100 %

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