Texas Workers’ Tort Rights Against Coworkers Sent to Top Court

The Fifth Circuit on Friday asked the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in on the power of employees in the state to sue co-workers under tort law when their claims relate to alleged discrimination.

The question is one the state justices have never fully answered, a three-judge federal appeals panel said in an unpublished opinion. The importance of an answer on the “close, but unsettled” issue of whether co-workers can be sued for nonphysical torts “is obvious, especially to the Texas workforce,” the panel said. It certified the question to Texas’ top court and paused its own review of a ...