Did SCOTX Set the Rules for Coronavirus Exposure Litigation?

When a brown recluse bit Henry McCall, no one could have anticipated that the aftermath would shape the future of tort litigation. But that may well have happened in the recent Texas Supreme Court case of Hillis v. McCall. In addressing McCall’s spider bite, the court’s opinion sets legal rules that will likely control future cases involving novel coronavirus exposure.

The facts of the case are straightforward and common. McCall lived in a cabin on Homer Hillis’ property. He helped Hillis with maintenance at Hillis’ bed-and-breakfast. While working on a sink, a brown recluse spider bit McCall. McCall sued Hillis “for negligence under a premises-liablity theory, alleging that the presence of brown recluse spiders on Hillis’s property constituted an unreasonably dangerous condition….”