$640 Million Verdict for Pipefitter Killed by Falling HVAC Unit at Texas A&M San Antonio Site
After trial: TNT Crane appealed to the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals. In September 2025 the parties told the court they had reached a settlement, and on October 30, 2025 the court vacated the $640 million judgment and remanded the case for entry of judgment consistent with that settlement, whose amount is confidential.
Won by The Buzbee Law Firm.
A Harris County jury awarded $640 million to the family of David Lester Loree II, a journeyman pipefitter fatally crushed when a top-heavy HVAC unit being lifted by TNT Crane and Rigging overturned in high winds at a Texas A&M University-San Antonio construction site in September 2021.
What happened
In September 2021, David Lester Loree II was working as a journeyman pipefitter on the fourth floor of a building under construction at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. TNT Crane and Rigging was on site that day to hoist a large HVAC unit into position. Wind gusts reached up to 45 miles per hour. The crane crew attempted the lift anyway. The top-heavy unit became unstable and overturned, killing Loree.
Loree's family filed suit in Harris County District Court, Case No. 2021-68047, against TNT Crane and Rigging and several other contractors involved in the project. Way Engineering, McCorvey Sheet Metal Works, and Byrne Construction Services were named as defendants but were not taken to trial. TNT Crane faced the jury alone.
The Buzbee Law Firm, led by Tony Buzbee and joined by David Bergen, Ryan Pigg, and Thomas Holler, co-tried the case alongside Jackson Reed and Travis Terry of Reed and Terry. The plaintiffs argued that the lift should never have proceeded under those wind conditions, that TNT's crew made a conscious decision to continue despite the risk, and that the company's conduct warranted punitive accountability beyond ordinary negligence.
The jury deliberated and returned its verdict on May 12 and 13, 2025. It awarded $159.8 million in compensatory damages covering the family's losses, plus $480 million in punitive damages against TNT Crane and Rigging, for a combined total of $640 million. Judge Erica R. Hughes denied TNT's subsequent motion for mistrial and for sanctions on May 14, 2025. The company stated it was evaluating its options; no reduction or remittitur had been ordered as of the date of publication.
The Texas Lawbook ranked the verdict second on its list of the ten largest jury awards in Texas in 2025.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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