pjc-oil-and-gas-2022-lib

D AMAGES

PJC 313.20

Instruction required. PJC 313.20 should not be submitted without an instruction on the appropriate measures of damages. See Jackson v. Fontaine’s Clinics, Inc. , 499 S.W.2d 87, 90 (Tex. 1973) . See PJC 313.21 and 313.22 for sample instructions. Causation. To recover damages for breach of contract, a plaintiff must establish damages sustained as a result of the breach. Southern Electrical Services, Inc. v. City of Houston , 355 S.W.3d 319, 324 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2011, pet. denied). Parallel theories. If the breach-of-contract cause of action is only one of several theories of recovery submitted in the charge and any theory has a different legal mea sure of damages to be applied to a factually similar claim for damages, a separate dam ages question for each theory may be submitted and the following additional instruc tion may be included earlier in the charge: In answering questions about damages, answer each question sep arately. Do not increase or reduce the amount in one answer because of your answer to any other question about damages. Do not specu late about what any party’s ultimate recovery may or may not be. Any recovery will be determined by the court when it applies the law to your answers at the time of judgment. Elements of damages submitted separately. The Committee generally recom mends that multiple elements of damages be separately submitted to the jury. Harris County v. Smith , 96 S.W.3d 230, 233–34 (Tex. 2002) (broad-form submission of valid and invalid elements of damages may lead to harmful error if there is a proper objec tion raising insufficiency of the evidence to support one or more of the elements sub mitted); see also Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008(a) (“In an action in which a claimant seeks recovery of damages, the trier of fact shall determine the amount of economic damages separately from the amount of other compensatory damages.”). Separating economic from noneconomic damages is required to allow the court to apply the limits on recovery of exemplary damages based on economic and noneco nomic damages as required by Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008(b). Further, “[p]rejudgment interest may not be assessed or recovered on an award of future damages.” Tex. Fin. Code § 304.1045 (wrongful death, personal injury, or prop erty damage cases). Therefore, separation of past and future damages is required. Elements considered separately. Golden Eagle Archery, Inc. v. Jackson , 116 S.W.3d 757, 770 (Tex. 2003), provides an instruction for cases involving undefined or potentially overlapping categories of damages. In those cases, the following language should be substituted for the instruction to consider each element separately: Consider the following elements of damages, if any, and none other. You shall not award any sum of money on any element if you have otherwise, under some other element, awarded a sum of money

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