First Texas Bank v. Chris Carpenter

Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code limits a property owner’s liability for injuries to a contractor “who constructs, repairs, renovates, or modifies an improvement to real property”. 1 The court of appeals held that a person cannot be a contractor without an “actual” contract to perform specific work for stated compensation. 2 We disagree. In the context of Chapter 95, a contractor is simply someone who works on an improvement to real property. Here, however, the contractor was not engaged in the work covered by the statute. Accordingly, we affirm the court of appeals’…