Uptown Dallas (Class A office + business-lunch corridor)
Single-unit upscale steakhouse, 5,500 sf, 88 seats, $185 average ticket, 40 staff, Mixed Beverage Permit, premium wine program. A kitchen fire during NFL season peak, triggered by ventilation hood failure, drove a 70-day closure. The operator had elected non-subscriber workers comp status. A kitchen line cook injured in the fire filed a non-subscriber direct tort claim against the operator. Concurrent property and business interruption claims hit the same renewal cycle.
We re-read the operator profile on video — non-subscriber posture, Employer Liability tower sizing, ERISA alternative plan documentation discipline. We mapped the direct tort exposure against the prior dec page's Employer Liability limits, surfaced the under-sizing, and rebuilt the program to put non-subscriber tort reality at the center rather than the periphery. We coordinated the property and BI claim against premium-construction Uptown rebuild timelines.
Property and BI settled within the tower. The Employer Liability claim landed materially above subscriber-equivalent exposure under Texas Lab. Code § 406.001 non-subscriber framework, and the operator's ERISA alternative plan provided statutory-equivalent benefits but the employee's election of direct tort path drove final settlement structure. Operator now carries enhanced Employer Liability limits plus non-subscriber documentation discipline plus alternative plan compliance review on annual renewal cadence.
