$4.5 Million Sawmill Verdict Upheld After Texas Court Rejects Workers' Comp Bar

In May 2022, Jerry Thomas arrived at a sawmill in Rusk, Texas, owned by Antonio Munoz Aserradero, LLC, to see whether the job was right for him. The owner's instructions were direct: 'We will try you out. If you like it, we will talk about employment. For now, we will train you, and if you don't like it, it is like you have never even been here.' No wages were discussed. No hire was formalized.

Shortly after lunch on his first day, Thomas was shown how to operate a slab edger. Within minutes of resuming work, the machine caught his arm in a moving chain mechanism. The accident cost him his hand.

Texas Mutual Insurance, the sawmill's workers' compensation carrier, stepped in and paid medical and indemnity benefits. The sawmill then argued that those payments locked Thomas into the workers' compensation system and barred any tort claim under the Texas Workers' Compensation Act's exclusive-remedy provision. The central question at trial: was Thomas an employee at all?

A Cherokee County jury answered no. Jurors returned a 10-2 verdict assigning fault to the sawmill and its owner and awarded Thomas $4.5 million in damages. The defendants appealed to the Texas Twelfth Court of Appeals in Tyler.

Joshua Lee, Scott Armstrong, and C.J. Baker of Armstrong Lee and Baker LLP represented Thomas on appeal. The appellate panel affirmed on March 11, 2026, holding that the sawmill defendants failed to conclusively establish an employment relationship. Because no compensation had been agreed upon or promised at the time of the accident, Thomas was not an employee within the meaning of the Act, and the exclusive-remedy bar did not apply. The jury had assigned Thomas 20 percent of the responsibility, and the trial court rendered judgment on the $4.5 million damages finding in accordance with the verdict; the appellate court left that judgment intact.