Continental Casualty Company, Petitioner v. Mary Ann Downs, Beneficiary of Raymond Downs, Deceased, Respondent

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court held that a workers' compensation carrier that neither begins benefit payments nor provides a notice of refusal within seven days of receiving notice of injury fails to satisfy the statutory requirement and therefore cannot later contest the compensability of the claim; the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' judgment. Justice Jefferson dissented, arguing that the statute only imposes a waiver at the sixty‑day deadline and that Continental should be permitted to contest compensability.