After a fatal workplace accident in Texas, your family may have more than one source of compensation. Depending on the facts, eligible relatives may qualify for workers’ compensation death benefits, burial benefits, wrongful death damages, survival damages, or exemplary damages in limited cases. A separate claim may also exist against a contractor, equipment manufacturer, property owner, trucking company, maintenance provider, or another third party that contributed to the death.
The compensation available depends on the employer’s workers’ compensation coverage, the worker’s earnings, the legal relationship between the parties, the surviving family members, the evidence of negligence, and the financial and personal losses caused by the death.
Chavez Law Firm helps families in El Paso, Texas, and nearby areas investigate which parties may share responsibility for a fatal workplace accident. The firm can review workers’ compensation benefits, third-party liability, wrongful death damages, survival damages, and other possible sources of recovery.
A workplace death may support more than one claim. Receiving workers’ compensation benefits does not always prevent a separate case against a negligent third party.
Where Compensation May Come From After a Workplace Death 
Texas workplace death cases do not all follow the same legal path. Your family may have one claim or several related claims. The available options often depend on the answers to these questions:
- Did the employer carry Texas workers’ compensation insurance?
- Was the worker classified as an employee or an independent contractor?
- Did a person or business other than the employer contribute to the accident?
- Did defective equipment, unsafe property, or inadequate maintenance cause the death?
- Did the employer commit an intentional act or omission, or act with gross negligence?
Workers’ compensation may provide death and burial benefits. A separate wrongful death or survival claim may proceed against a negligent contractor, equipment manufacturer, trucking company, property owner, maintenance company, or another responsible third party.
Families can learn more by reviewing the firm’s information about El Paso industrial accident lawyers and industrial accident injury claims in Texas.
Texas Workers’ Compensation Death Benefits
When an employer carries workers’ compensation insurance and a compensable work injury causes an employee’s death, eligible beneficiaries may receive death benefits.
Texas death benefits generally equal 75 percent of the deceased employee’s average weekly wage, subject to state minimum and maximum benefit limits. These payments replace part of the income the worker would have provided. They are separate from damages that may be awarded through a wrongful death lawsuit.
Potential beneficiaries may include:
- A surviving spouse
- Minor children
- Full-time students under age 25 who attend an accredited educational institution
- Adult children who were dependent on the worker at the time of death
- Dependent grandchildren
- Dependent parents, siblings, or grandparents in qualifying circumstances
- Nondependent parents when no other eligible beneficiary has priority under Texas law
The duration of death benefits depends on the beneficiary’s relationship to the worker. A surviving spouse may receive benefits for life. In most cases, remarriage results in a lump-sum payment equal to two years of benefits. A different rule may apply to the surviving spouse of a qualifying first responder.
Eligible children generally receive benefits until they no longer meet the statutory requirements. Adult children and other dependent relatives must satisfy the applicable dependency rules.
A beneficiary generally must submit DWC Form-042, Claim for Workers’ Compensation Death Benefits, to the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation or the insurance carrier within one year of the employee’s death. Exceptions may apply, but your family should not rely on an exception without legal advice.
Enrique Chavez
Texas Trial Attorney
Protecting Your Rights
Burial and Funeral Benefits
Texas workers’ compensation may reimburse up to $10,000 in qualifying burial expenses. The benefit is paid to the person who paid those expenses and is separate from weekly death benefit payments.
Your family should preserve:
- Funeral home contracts
- Burial or cremation invoices
- Cemetery expenses
- Transportation receipts
- Proof of payment
- Records showing who paid each expense
Funeral and burial expenses may also be addressed through a wrongful death claim, the estate, or another available source, depending on who paid them and the facts of the case. An attorney can determine where each expense should be submitted and whether any repayment, credit, or offset issue may apply.
Can the Family Sue the Employer?
When a Texas employer provides workers’ compensation coverage, the workers’ compensation system is usually the exclusive remedy against that employer. This rule generally prevents an ordinary negligence lawsuit against a subscribing employer.
Texas law preserves a claim for exemplary damages when an employee’s death was caused by an intentional act or omission of the employer or by the employer’s gross negligence. The surviving spouse or heirs may pursue this form of recovery when the evidence satisfies the required legal standard.
Gross negligence requires more than ordinary carelessness or a routine safety mistake. It generally involves an extreme degree of risk and evidence that the responsible person knew about the risk but proceeded with conscious indifference to the rights, safety, or welfare of others.
Evidence that may support a gross negligence claim includes:
- Prior workplace accidents or near misses
- Repeated safety complaints
- Ignored inspection findings
- Missing guards or safety devices
- Deliberate violations of written safety procedures
- Orders to continue dangerous work after a hazard was reported
- Internal messages showing that management knew about the danger
Texas also allows many employers to operate without workers’ compensation insurance. These employers are commonly called nonsubscribers. When an employer is a nonsubscriber, the family may have a direct negligence claim against the employer, depending on the worker’s legal status and the circumstances of the fatal accident.
– Steve Hendrix – Adriana Solis – Luis Amador – Maria Terrazas
Wrongful Death Claims Against Third Parties
Workers’ compensation coverage does not necessarily prevent a lawsuit against a negligent third party. A third party is a person or business other than the worker’s employer.
Possible third-party defendants may include:
- A general contractor that controlled unsafe work
- A subcontractor whose employee caused the accident
- A manufacturer of defective machinery or safety equipment
- A company responsible for equipment inspection or maintenance
- A commercial driver or trucking company
- A property owner that failed to correct a dangerous condition
- An engineering or workplace safety contractor
- A staffing company or another business involved in the job site
Consider an El Paso construction worker who dies when defective lifting equipment fails. The employer’s workers’ compensation carrier may owe death and burial benefits. The equipment manufacturer, rental company, maintenance contractor, or another business may also face a separate product liability or negligence claim.
The firm explains related liability issues in its article about third-party claims after falling equipment accidents at El Paso job sites.
A third-party claim may provide compensation for losses that workers’ compensation does not fully address.
What Damages Can Be Recovered in a Texas Wrongful Death Claim?
Texas wrongful death law permits a claim for the benefit of the deceased person’s surviving spouse, children, and parents. These damages focus on what eligible family members lost because of the death.
Lost Earning Capacity
This category addresses the income and financial support the worker probably would have provided during the person’s expected working life. The calculation may consider wages, employment benefits, education, work history, expected raises, career plans, health, and likely retirement age.
Loss of Care, Maintenance, Support, Services, Advice, and Counsel
A worker’s contributions often extend beyond wages. The person may have provided childcare, transportation, home maintenance, cooking, financial guidance, emotional support, or care for older relatives.
Loss of Companionship and Society
A surviving spouse, child, or parent may seek compensation for the loss of love, comfort, companionship, and the personal relationship shared with the deceased worker.
Mental Pain and Anguish
Eligible relatives may seek damages for the emotional suffering caused by the death. Testimony about the family relationship, shared routines, communication, and the effect of the loss may help establish these damages.
Loss of Inheritance
This category may compensate eligible family members for money or property the worker probably would have saved and left to them if the fatal accident had not occurred.
Exemplary Damages
Exemplary damages may be available when the evidence proves the legal requirements for gross negligence or another qualifying form of serious misconduct. These damages are intended to punish the defendant and deter similar conduct.
Families can review who is able to file a wrongful death claim in Texas for more information about eligible claimants.
Survival Damages Belong to the Estate
A survival claim is different from a wrongful death claim. Wrongful death damages compensate eligible relatives for their losses. Survival damages belong to the deceased worker’s estate.
A survival claim preserves the personal injury claim that the worker could have brought if the worker had survived. Potential damages may include:
- Medical expenses incurred between the injury and death
- Lost wages between the injury and death
- Physical pain experienced before death
- Mental anguish experienced before death
- Property damage connected to the incident
The time between injury and death can affect the available survival damages. A worker who remained conscious and received medical treatment may have medical expenses and evidence of pain or mental anguish. When death occurred instantly, some survival damages may not be available.
Funeral and burial expenses generally arise after death. They may be recoverable through workers’ compensation burial benefits, a wrongful death claim, or another applicable source, depending on the circumstances.
Evidence That May Affect the Value of the Claim
The amount recoverable depends on the available evidence, not only the severity of the loss. A prompt investigation can help preserve:
- Workplace photographs and security video
- Equipment and machinery involved in the accident
- OSHA reports and citations
- Inspection and maintenance records
- Safety manuals and training documents
- Witness names and contact information
- Employment and payroll records
- Tax returns and benefit statements
- Medical and autopsy records
- Contracts showing which company controlled the work
- Prior incident reports and safety complaints
- Insurance policies
Your family should be cautious about giving recorded statements, signing releases, or accepting a final payment before every possible claim has been examined. A workers’ compensation carrier may focus on statutory benefits and may not investigate whether an outside company contributed to the death.
Texas Filing Deadlines
A Texas wrongful death claim is generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations. The deadline usually runs from the date of death, although exceptions may change the calculation.
A workers’ compensation death benefit claim generally requires filing within one year of the employee’s death. Claims involving a city, county, state agency, or another government entity may also require written notice within a much shorter period.
Waiting can also damage the evidence. Video may be erased, machinery may be repaired, job-site conditions may change, and witnesses may become difficult to locate.
An early legal investigation does not force your family to file a lawsuit immediately. It can preserve the information needed to make an informed decision.
How an Attorney Can Help Your Family
Fatal workplace accident cases may involve workers’ compensation law, wrongful death law, probate matters, product liability, premises liability, construction contracts, and several insurance policies.
An attorney can help by:
- Determining whether the employer carried workers’ compensation insurance
- Identifying eligible beneficiaries and wrongful death claimants
- Investigating third-party responsibility
- Sending evidence-preservation notices
- Obtaining safety records, contracts, and insurance policies
- Consulting workplace safety, engineering, medical, and economic professionals
- Calculating wrongful death and survival damages
- Addressing liens, credits, and benefit offsets
- Communicating with insurers and corporate representatives
- Preparing the claim for settlement discussions or trial
No attorney can guarantee a result. A detailed investigation can help your family understand which claims may exist and what evidence may support them.
Speak With an El Paso Fatal Workplace Accident Attorney
After a fatal workplace accident, your family may face lost income, funeral costs, insurance forms, and unanswered questions. Chavez Law Firm helps families in El Paso, Texas, and nearby areas examine workers’ compensation death benefits, third-party liability, wrongful death damages, survival claims, and other possible sources of compensation.
Attorney Enrique Chavez, Jr. has represented people in El Paso in personal injury, wrongful death, civil trial, and employment matters. Chavez Law Firm offers free consultations and handles industrial accident and wrongful death cases.
Call 915-995-5777 or visit the firm’s contact page to discuss the accident and the legal options that may apply.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Consult an attorney about your specific situation.
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