Research synthesis · Voux · VOUX7 CORE. Statutory text verified against current Texas Legislature Online (
statutes.capitol.texas.gov). Every cited case verified against FindLaw, Justia, Google Scholar, or CourtListener. Not legal advice — verify all citations before any filing.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 41.008 limits exemplary damages awarded in Texas civil actions. The cap is the most important single feature of Texas tort-damages doctrine — but subsection (c) lists 22 categories of felony conduct for which the cap does not apply, and those carve-outs are frequently load-bearing in fraud cases.
Exemplary damages awarded against a defendant may not exceed an amount equal to the greater of:
The "two-times-economic plus up-to-$750K-noneconomic OR $200,000" formula is the default ceiling in Texas civil cases.
The cap does not apply to cases in which the plaintiff seeks recovery from a defendant whose conduct constitutes a felony under any of 22 specified Penal Code provisions, if the defendant's conduct was committed knowingly or intentionally. The cap-removed list includes (selected):
The list is mechanical: if the trier of fact finds the defendant's conduct constitutes a knowing or intentional felony under one of the 22 enumerated sections, the statutory cap is lifted entirely. Exemplary damages are then bounded only by due-process scrutiny under BMW of N. Am., Inc. v. Gore + State Farm v. Campbell + Texas equivalents.
Two of the 22 enumerated felony predicates regularly apply in fraudulent-lien attorney-defendant cases:
A person commits an offense under § 32.46(a) if, with intent to defraud or harm another, the person by deception causes another to sign or execute any document affecting property, service, or pecuniary interest of any person. Filing a fraudulent mechanic's lien instrument with a county recorder — a sworn affidavit obtained by deception about the legitimacy of the underlying claim — fits within § 32.46(a) on the verifiable construction. The offense is a felony when the property or pecuniary interest involved exceeds the applicable threshold (currently $2,500 per Penal Code § 32.46(b-1)).
A person commits an offense under § 32.47(a) if, with intent to defraud or harm another, the person destroys, removes, conceals, alters, substitutes, or otherwise impairs the verity, legibility, or availability of a writing, other than a governmental record. The offense is a felony when the writing is a will, codicil, deed, instrument concerning real property, or certain commercial paper. Concealing or altering documents that bear on the validity of a recorded lien — or substituting non-dispositive evidence for dispositive evidence in litigation — implicates § 32.47.
A Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 12.002 claim against a law firm or attorney typically pleads exemplary damages under § 12.002(b)(4). The § 41.008(b) cap would otherwise dominate the upper bound of recovery — capping a multi-million-dollar §12.002 claim at $200,000 or a multiple of proven economic damages.
When the underlying conduct also constitutes a knowing felony under § 32.46 or § 32.47, the cap is removed. This dramatically expands the exposure: a § 12.002 plaintiff whose case includes fraudulent recording of mechanic's lien instruments (a § 32.46 predicate) or substitution of payment-record evidence in litigation (a § 32.47 predicate) can seek exemplary damages without statutory ceiling.
Bryant v. CIT Group/Consumer Finance, Inc., No. 4:2016cv01840 (S.D. Tex. 2017) [verified — federal-court application of TX § 41.008(c)] applies the carve-out via Penal Code felony predicates.
A plaintiff pleading uncapped exemplary damages under § 41.008(c)(11) must:
The procedural posture is forgiving: a parallel criminal prosecution is not required. The civil trier of fact makes the felony finding on the civil case's preponderance standard (though several appellate courts have applied a clear-and-convincing standard for the § 41.008(c) felony finding by analogy to other exemplary-damages findings — counsel verifies the current standard in the controlling jurisdiction).
/statutes/cprc-12-002-fraudulent-lien-liability.md] — the primary cause of action for fraudulent lien filings, with § 12.002(b)(4) exemplary-damages hook/statutes/penal-32-46-securing-execution-by-deception.md] — full primer on the § 32.46 felony predicate/statutes/penal-32-47-fraudulent-destruction-removal-writing.md] — full primer on the § 32.47 felony predicate/statutes/penal-37-10-tampering-with-governmental-records.md] — companion criminal exposure for fraudulent governmental-record filingsResearch synthesis, not legal advice. Counsel of record verifies every citation before any filing.