Texas Supreme Court: Relevant Evidence Of A Plaintiff's Use Or Non-Use Of A Seat Belt Is Admissible

On February 13, 2015, the Texas Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion that will likely have major ramifications in civil lawsuits involving motor vehicle accidents. The Court overruled 40 years of precedent and held that relevant evidence of use or non-use of seat belts is admissible for the purpose of apportioning responsibility in civil lawsuits. The Court made its decision in light of the Texas Legislature's repeal of its statutory ban on all seat-belt evidence and the current framework of the state's proportionate-responsibility scheme, which "requires fact-finders to consider relevant evidence of a plaintiff's pre-occurrence, injury-causing conduct." Nabors Well Servs. v. Romero, 456 S.W.3d 553, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 142, at *23, 58 Tex. Sup. J. 347 (Tex. 2015).

Prior to Romero, the Texas Supreme Court's reason for excluding evidence of one's use or non-use of a seat belt was that although a plaintiff's failure to use a seat belt may exacerbate his injuries, it cannot cause a car accident and, as such, it should not reduce plaintiff's recovery. Relatedly, the Texas Legislature, in 1985, enacted a statute prohibiting evidence of use or non-use of seat belts in all civil cases, but it repealed that prohibition in 2003. What changed between 1974 and today? The Legislature overhauled Texas' system for apportioning fault in negligence cases, such that Texas now follows a pure comparative responsibility scheme. A plaintiff's negligence can now be apportioned alongside a defendant's fault without entirely barring the plaintiff's recovery. Also, unlike 1974, seat belts are now required by law and, as the Court observed, "have become an unquestioned part of daily life for the vast majority of drivers and passengers." Id. at *2. "These changes have rendered our prohibition on seat-belt evidence an anachronism. The rule may have been appropriate in its time, but today it is a vestige of a bygone legal system and an oddity in light of modern societal norms." Id.

The Court noted that attitudes toward use of seat belts have evolved drastically over the past 40 years. When it initially held that one's use or non-use of seat belts was not admissible, car manufacturers had only recently been required to install seat belts as standard equipment, but relatively few people nationwide wore them - only about 14% in 1984, the year before Texas enacted its first seat-belt law. During the intervening decades that seat-belt use has become the law, the number has...