$60 Million CPS Energy Settlement Named Largest Personal Injury Settlement in Texas for 2025
A Dallas-based trial firm has earned a rare distinction in the legal world: its resolution of a catastrophic natural gas explosion case has been ranked by TopVerdict as the #1 Personal Injury Settlement in Texas for 2025. The recognition belongs to Lyons & Simmons, LLP, for a $60 million settlement reached on behalf of a San Antonio mother and her adult son who were severely injured when their rental home exploded in May 2021.
The case, Robert Rymers and Virginia Rymers v. CPS Energy, No. 2021CI18484, centered on allegations that the city-owned utility failed to properly maintain its aging gas distribution infrastructure — a claim the jury accepted in decisive fashion when it returned a $109.5 million verdict in February 2025. That verdict has separately been recognized among the Top 5 Personal Injury Verdicts in Texas for 2025.
What Happened on Walters Street
Just before 11 p.m. on May 1, 2021, a natural gas explosion destroyed the Rymers family’s rental property in the Colosseum Heights area of southeast San Antonio. Robert Rymers suffered severe burns across roughly 65% of his body and was left permanently disabled. His mother, Virginia, sustained burn injuries and an air embolism from the blast. The family lost all of their possessions. Two family dogs were killed.
Investigators from both the San Antonio Police Department’s arson team and the San Antonio Fire Department determined the cause was a natural gas explosion. CPS Energy, the local public utility, disputed liability — a position it maintained before, during, and even after the jury verdict.
At trial, attorneys for the Rymers family presented evidence that the home’s gas system had been installed in 1960, with a documented history of failures that led to the meter being replaced in 2008 and again in 2015. In 2020, the property owner converted the home to all-electric power and shut off the gas meter at the valve. Trial testimony revealed that CPS Energy admitted there was no legitimate reason for natural gas to have been present in the home unless the meter valve had failed — and the company also admitted it lost a critical piece of the pipe that failed after recovering it post-explosion.
The jury was not persuaded by CPS Energy’s denials. After hearing the evidence, it found the utility 100% liable and awarded $109.5 million in damages.
How a $109.5 Million Verdict Became a $60 Million Settlement
The final payout figure — $60 million — reflects a litigation mechanism known as a high-low agreement. These agreements, common in complex, high-exposure cases, are negotiated between parties before a trial concludes. They set a guaranteed minimum recovery for the plaintiff regardless of what the jury decides, while capping the defendant’s maximum exposure above that floor.
In this case, the parties entered into the high-low agreement prior to trial. When the jury returned a verdict far exceeding the agreed ceiling, the case resolved at the $60 million cap. That figure is what TopVerdict has now recognized as the largest reported personal injury settlement in Texas for 2025.
This distinction matters. While verdicts attract headlines, settlements reflect the actual money paid to injured families. A $60 million settlement — secured with certainty for clients who had already endured years of recovery and litigation — represents a significant measure of accountability.
“Great trial results aren’t measured only by verdicts — they’re measured by the security and certainty they provide families facing unimaginable circumstances,” said Michael P. Lyons, co-founding partner of Lyons & Simmons. “It reflects a family’s courage, a jury’s willingness to hold a utility company accountable, and a trial team’s commitment to uncovering the truth.”
A Case That Reflects a National Infrastructure Problem
The Rymers case did not arise in a vacuum. Aging natural gas infrastructure is a documented safety concern across the United States, and Texas is no exception. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) oversees more than 3.3 million miles of pipeline across the country, a significant portion of which involves distribution systems installed decades ago.
In 2021, Congress created the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) grant program, allocating $1 billion over five years specifically to help municipalities repair, rehabilitate, or replace leak-prone legacy gas distribution systems. The program was an acknowledgment that older communities across the country are exposed to real, preventable risk.
In October 2025, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the PIPELINE Safety Act of 2025, which would reauthorize PHMSA’s safety programs through 2030 and authorize $1.65 billion in funding. Texas Senator Ted Cruz was among the bill’s sponsors — a signal that even legislators in a state with a complex relationship to energy regulation recognize that infrastructure safety cannot be deferred indefinitely.
The Rymers case illustrates what happens when deferred maintenance collides with real people. A gas system installed in 1960. Repeated failures. Meter replacements. A family that had already removed gas appliances from their home. And still, a catastrophic explosion that investigators from two city agencies linked to the utility’s failing infrastructure.
CPS Energy Faces Growing Legal Scrutiny
The Rymers verdict has not quieted legal pressure on CPS Energy. As recently as May 2026, survivors of a separate north-side San Antonio house explosion filed a new lawsuit against the utility, alleging injuries from another residential blast in a nearby neighborhood. That case was refiled after earlier proceedings, and it reflects what legal observers see as a broader pattern of complaints about the utility’s infrastructure management.
For CPS Energy, an organization that serves the San Antonio metro area as its primary electric and natural gas provider, the Rymers case adds to the weight of public accountability. The utility’s one-sentence response to the February 2025 verdict — that it “continues to dispute liability” — drew sharp criticism from the Rymers family’s attorneys, who argued the company refused to take responsibility even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
What This Means for Personal Injury Law in Texas
The TopVerdict recognition carries professional weight. The organization tracks and ranks verdicts and settlements reported across all 50 states, providing a benchmark for the legal industry on case outcomes and litigation trends. Being named the top personal injury settlement in Texas for 2025 places the Rymers case in a select tier of outcomes — not just as a victory for one family, but as a data point that will inform how plaintiffs, defense teams, and insurers evaluate similar cases going forward.
For Lyons & Simmons, the recognition adds to a remarkable track record. The Dallas firm has secured more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements since 2023, representing clients in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, explosion, aviation disaster, and trucking crash cases.
More broadly, the case reinforces what experienced personal injury attorneys serving clients in Katy, TX and across Texas understand well: utility negligence cases require deep technical investigation, the willingness to take complex matters to trial, and the commitment to hold well-resourced defendants fully accountable. High-low agreements, strategic use of expert testimony, and the ability to present decades of maintenance failures in terms a jury can understand — these are the tools that translate documented negligence into meaningful outcomes.
The Rymers verdict demonstrates that Texas juries are willing to hold major utilities responsible when the evidence is there. It also demonstrates that accountability — even when it takes years to arrive — can still find families who have suffered the unimaginable.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Date of explosion: May 1, 2021, Colosseum Heights neighborhood, San Antonio
- Plaintiffs: Robert Rymers and Virginia Rymers
- Defendant: CPS Energy (city-owned public utility)
- Jury verdict: $109.5 million (February 2025, Bexar County)
- Final settlement: $60 million (pursuant to pre-trial high-low agreement)
- Presiding judge: Bexar County District Judge Laura Salinas
- Plaintiffs’ counsel: Michael Lyons, Chris Simmons, Chris Carr, and Michael Wozniak of Lyons & Simmons, LLP; Omar G. Alvarez of the Law Office of O.G. Alvarez & Associates P.C.
- TopVerdict ranking: #1 Personal Injury Settlement in Texas, 2025
