Appeals court dismissed wrongful death suit following employee’s collapse

A mother whose son collapsed at a job site in Texas failed to show how a trial court erred when it dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Dawn Ursin challenged a summary judgment rendered in favor of her son Ja’Cardo Hawkins’s employer Brand Solutions Inc., claiming that a trial court erred in granting Brand’s dismissal of the suit, according to Dawn Ursin, individually and on behalf of Ja’Cardo Hawkins v. Brand Energy Solutions Inc., filed Tuesday in The Court of Appeals for the 1st District of Texas.

The autopsy for Mr. Hawkins, who collapsed on his first day on the job building scaffolding, stated that his death was “natural” and that the cause of his death was “hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure.” The report explained that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy “may be asymptomatic or may be complicated by cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.”  

The company had argued that if Mr. Hawkins’s death “was a result of his employment” that workers compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy. Brand asserted that its summary-judgment evidence conclusively showed that Mr. Hawkins’s death “was unrelated to his employment and was not a result of anything he did in the course and scope of his employment.” Brand asserted that Ms. Ursin could produce no evidence to prove their claims were incorrect.

Because Ms. Ursin has not challenged all grounds on which the judgment was based, the appeals court affirmed the trial court ruling.