Texas Agriculture Code Chapter 143: Highway Livestock Collisions, Open Range vs. County Stock Laws
Summary of the Texas Rule (Tex. Agric. Code §§ 143.021–143.108)
Resolves the complex two-tier statutory conflict in Texas when a motorist or 18-wheeler strikes a cow, bull, or horse on a U.S./State Highway (§ 143.102) versus a Farm-to-Market or County Road (Subchapter B/D local stock elections).
Statutory Text Summary & Legal Mechanics
Under Subchapter E (§ 143.102), a person who owns or has responsibility for the control of a horse, mule, donkey, cow, bull, steer, hog, sheep, or goat may not 'knowingly permit' the animal to traverse or roam at large, unattended, on the right-of-way of a 'highway' (defined in § 143.101 as a U.S. highway or a State highway, explicitly excluding numbered Farm-to-Market roads!). Under Subchapters B and D (§§ 143.024, 143.074), in counties where voters have adopted a local stock law, an owner may not 'permit' cattle or horses to run at large on ANY road in the county.
Practical Impact on Texas Personal Injury Claims & Jury Trials
In Pruski v. Garcia, 594 S.W.3d 322 (Tex. 2020), the Texas Supreme Court resolved decades of appellate conflict by holding that when a crash occurs on a U.S. or State Highway inside a Stock Law county, BOTH statutes apply, and the more rigorous 'knowingly permit' mens rea standard of § 143.102 governs collisions on State/U.S. Highways!
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