A second, separate use for the 50% line
Beyond the familiar comparative responsibility bar, CPRC § 33.013 uses a 50% threshold for a genuinely different purpose: deciding whether joint and several liability applies to a given defendant at all. A defendant whose own responsibility is 50% or less generally pays only that percentage of the damages — not a co-defendant's share as well.
What happens above 50%
Once a defendant's own responsibility exceeds 50% of the total, this several-only protection falls away under § 33.013(b)(1). That defendant can be held jointly and severally liable, meaning a plaintiff could potentially collect the entire judgment from that one defendant, regardless of what other defendants contributed to the total fault.
A genuinely important detail: settling parties still count
Under CPRC § 33.003, fault can be apportioned to a person who has already settled out of the case before trial. This matters in practice: that settling party's percentage is still subtracted from the total when figuring out what the remaining, non-settling defendants actually owe, even though the plaintiff's claim against the settling party was already resolved separately.
Seat belts: a factor, not an automatic bar
A claimant's failure to wear a seat belt doesn't automatically bar a Texas car accident claim, though it can be considered as a relevant factor within the overall fault analysis under the proportionate responsibility framework.
Two different percentages, two different questions
It's worth keeping these separate: the plaintiff's own recovery is governed by the 51% proportionate responsibility bar — a question of whether the plaintiff recovers anything at all. The 50% liability threshold under § 33.013 is an entirely different mechanism, addressing how a judgment against multiple defendants actually gets divided up once liability has already been established.
Who ultimately decides
If a case goes to trial, the jury determines both the plaintiff's responsibility percentage and each defendant's individual share under this framework. In the far more common scenario of a negotiated settlement, the parties and their insurers effectively work out these same questions between themselves. See our Texas comparative negligence calculator to see how sharply the plaintiff's own recovery changes on either side of the 51% line.