Full opinion text
Justice GREEN delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justice WAINWRIGHT and Justice BRISTER joined, and in Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII and IX of which Justice HECHT joined, and in Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and IX of which Justice JOHNSON joined, and in Parts I, II, III, VI, VII, and IX of which Justice WILLETT joined. Rehearing was granted in this case and our previous opinion was withdrawn. We now substitute the following in its place. The judgment remains unchanged. In this workers’ compensation case, we decide whether a premises owner that contracts for the performance of work on its premises, and provides workers’ compensation insurance to the contractor’s employees pursuant to that contract, is entitled to the benefit of the exclusive remedy defense generally afforded only to employers by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act. While the Act specifically confers statutory employer status on general contractors who qualify by providing workers’ compensation insurance for their subcontractors’ employees, it says nothing about whether premises owners who act as their own general contractor are also entitled to employer status, and thus the exclusive remedy defense. We hold that the exclusive remedy defense for qualifying general contractors is, likewise, available to premises owners who meet the Act’s definition of “general contractor,” and who also provide workers’ compensation insurance to lower-tier subcontractors’ employees. Because we conclude that Entergy Gulf States, Inc. meets the definition of “general contractor” under the Act, and because Entergy otherwise qualifies under the Act as having provided workers’ compensation insurance under its written agreement with International Maintenance Corporation (IMC), it is entitled to the exclusive remedy defense against the negligence claims brought by IMC’s employee, John Summers. We reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and render judgment for Entergy. I Entergy contracted with IMC to assist in the performance of certain maintenance, repair and other technical services at its various facilities. The parties agreed that Entergy would provide, at its own cost, workers’ compensation insurance for IMC’s employees through an owner provided insurance program, or OPIP, in exchange for IMC’s lower contract price. Entergy complied with its obligation under the agreement by purchasing workers’ compensation insurance covering IMC’s employees. John Summers, an IMC employee, was injured while working at En-tergy’s Sabine Station plant. He applied for, and received, benefits under the workers’ compensation policy purchased by En-tergy. He then sued Entergy for negligence. Entergy moved for summary judgment on the ground that it was a statutory employer immune from common-law tort suits. See Tex. Lab.Code § 408.001(a). The trial court agreed and granted judgment for Entergy. The court of appeals reversed. 282 S.W.8d 511. We granted Entergy’s petition for review to examine whether section 406.121(1) of the Workers’ Compensation Act excludes a premises owner from serving as its own general contractor for the purpose of qualifying for immunity as a statutory employer of its contractors’ employees. II The Act outlines a process by which a general contractor qualifies for immunity from common-law tort claims brought by the employees of its subeon-tractors. First, the general contractor and subcontractor must enter into a written agreement under which the general contractor provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage to the subcontractor and the employees of the subcontractor. Id. § 406.123(a). This agreement makes the general contractor a statutory employer of the subcontractor’s employees for purposes of the workers’ compensation laws. Id. § 406.123(e). The statutory employer is entitled to immunity from common-law tort actions brought by the subcontractor’s employees, and a covered employee’s “exclusive remedy” for work-related injuries is workers’ compensation benefits. Id. § 408.001(a). Summers first argues that Entergy failed to establish as a matter of law that Entergy and Summers executed a written agreement under which Entergy would provide workers’ compensation coverage. See Tex. Lab.Code § 406.123(a). Summers’ chief argument is that the contract for maintenance, construction, and general services was between IMC and another Entergy company, Entergy Services, Inc., as opposed to Entergy Gulf States, Inc. However, the contract stated that Entergy Services, Inc. acted for itself and as agent for other Entergy Companies, defined to include the Entergy petitioner here. Summers also admitted in his response to En-tergy’s summary judgment motion that the contract was between IMC and Entergy Gulf States. In addition, the blanket contract order states that Entergy would be paying “O.P.I.P. wage rates,” indicating that the contract’s purpose included insurance coverage. Entergy also offered an affidavit from a risk manager, stating that pursuant to the contract between Entergy and IMC, Entergy agreed to procure a workers’ compensation policy for IMC employees. As a matter of law, these documents establish that Entergy satisfied the written agreement requirement under the statute. Under this agreement, the workers’ compensation coverage for IMC’s employees was secured by Entergy, not IMC. Likewise, it is undisputed that Summers sought and collected benefits for his injury from Entergy’s OPIP. Thus, in determining Entergy’s qualification as a statutory employer entitled to the exclusive remedy defense, the only remaining inquiry is whether Entergy falls within the Act’s definition of “general contractor.” Tex. Lab. Code § 406.121(1). We conclude that it does. Ill The meaning of a statute is a legal question, which we review de novo to ascertain and give effect to the Legislature’s intent. F.F.P. Operating Partners., L.P. v. Duenez, 237 S.W.3d 680, 683 (Tex.2007). Where text is clear, text is determinative of that intent. State v. Shumake, 199 S.W.3d 279, 284 (Tex.2006) (“[W]hen possible, we discern [legislative intent] from the plain meaning of the words chosen.”); see also Alex Sheshunoff Mgmt. Sens., L.P. v. Johnson, 209 S.W.3d 644, 651-52 (Tex.2006). This general rule applies unless enforcing the plain language of the statute as written would produce absurd results. Fleming Foods of Tex., Inc. v. Rylander, 6 S.W.3d 278, 284 (Tex.1999). Therefore, our practice when construing a statute is to recognize that “the words [the Legislature] chooses should be the surest guide to legislative intent.” Fitzgerald v. Advanced Spine Fixation Sys., Inc., 996 S.W.2d 864, 866 (Tex.1999). Only when those words are ambiguous do we “resort to rules of construction or extrinsic aids.” In re Estate of Nash, 220 S.W.3d 914, 917 (Tex.2007). With these principles in mind, we examine what the Legislature meant by the term “general contractor” in the workers’ compensation statute. We do not look to the ordinary, or commonly understood, meaning of the term because the Legislature has supplied its own definition, which we are bound to follow. Tex. Gov’t Code § 311.011(b). The Legislature defines “general contractor” as: [A] person who undertakes to procure the performance of work or a service, either separately or through the use of subcontractors. The term includes a “principal contractor,” “original contractor,” “prime contractor,” or other analogous term. The term does not include a motor carrier that provides a transportation service through the use of an owner operator. Tex Lab.Code § 406.121(1). That a premises owner can be a “person” within the meaning of the statute is not challenged. The dispute, instead, centers on whether one who “undertakes to procure the performance of work” can include a premises owner, or whether that phrase limits the definition of general contractor to non-owner contractors downstream from the owner. Since the words contained within the definition are not themselves defined, we apply a meaning that is consistent with the common understanding of those terms. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, “undertake” generally means to “take on an obligation or task,” and “procurement” means “the act of getting or obtaining something.” Blaok’s Law Dictionary 981, 1238 (7th ed.2000). In other words, a general contractor is a person who takes on the task of obtaining the performance of work. That definition does not exclude premises owners; indeed, it describes precisely what Entergy did. In the words of Summers’ own summary judgment response, Entergy “entered into a contract with [IMC] for IMC to perform various maintenance work at Entergy’s plant in Bridge City, Texas.” Therefore, we conclude that a premises owner can be a general contractor under the definition provided in the Act. IV The dissent, and some amici, contend that our reading of the statute constitutes a major change in the law that, for the first time, would enable premises owners to become statutory employers entitled to the exclusive remedy defense — a result they say the Legislature never intended. 282 S.W.3d 511. However, the Legislature enacted the section that established “deemed employer” status in 1917, the very first provision to address a subscriber’s coverage of subcontractors’ employees. See Act of Mar. 28, 1917, 35th Leg., R.S., ch. 103, § 1, Part II, sec. 6, 1917 Tex. Gen. Laws 269, 284-85. Since then, subsequent revisions have not indicated an intent to create the kind of exception for owner-subscribers the dissent would now recognize. Indeed, when the “deemed employer” statute was first enacted, the Act made no reference at all to “general contractors.” Instead, the provision applied only to “subscribers,” a general term that included all purchasers of workers’ compensation insurance. Id. Under this 1917 version, the statutory language broadly established, without qualification, that any subscriber, even a premises owner-subscriber, could qualify as a statutory employer. When the Legislature added the “written agreement” provision in 1983, definitions for “prime contractor” and “subcontractor” were also added, but the term “subscriber” and the original “deemed employer” language were retained in the Act verbatim. Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg., R.S., ch. 950, § 1, sec. 6, 1988 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5210-11. The Act made no distinction between different kinds of entities up and down the contracting chain, for a good reason. For the purposes of the statute, it would be just as bad for owner-subscribers to try to avoid covering workers by subcontracting out the work as it would be for general contractors, subcontractors, or any other subscriber to do the same. The dissent fails to explain why the mere restructuring of this provision in 1983, which left in the old language referring to subscribers, demonstrates a legislative intent to reorder the scope of the Act’s coverage, not in a way that is consistent with its purpose of protecting workers by promoting coverage, but instead in a way that carves out an owner-exception from the Act’s protection for subscribers. Nor does the dissent attempt to explain why, if such a significant change in long-standing policy was intended, it was done in such an obscure manner. V The dissent contends that the Act never covered premises owners in the first place, and that owners were not included within the definition of general contractors in the 1989 amendment. We disagree. The originating statute applied to “any subscriber,” which necessarily means that, under the old version of the Act, a subscriber who also happened to be a premises owner would not be permitted to escape liability to a worker by contracting out the work. By operation of the statute, then, the owner-subscriber who contracted out work to avoid liability for its workers’ injuries would nevertheless be considered the employer, the injured worker would be entitled to benefits under the owner’s workers’ compensation policy, and the owner would be entitled to assert the exclusive remedy defense. See Act of Mar. 28, 1917, 35th Leg., R.S., ch. 103, § 1, Part II, sec. 6, 1917 Tex. Gen. Laws 269, 284-85. So while the provision may have been enacted for the purpose of preventing employers from trying to avoid liability, the scope of its application did not exclude premises owners. In 1983, however, an amendment provided, for the first time, for voluntary employer status for upstream entities in the contracting chain through the use of written agreements between parties. Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg., R.S., ch. 950, § 1, sec. 6, 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5210-11. More specifically, a general contractor was permitted to enter into a written agreement to provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage to its subcontractors and its subcontractors employees and, upon do-, ing so, the “prime contractor” would become, by virtue of the statute, the deemed employer of the subcontractors’ employees entitled to the exclusive remedy defense. The provisions of the old law survived the amendment so, as before, “all subscribers” remained eligible for deemed employer status, including premises owners. The question that we address today is whether the Legislature, when it amended the statute, intended to exclude premises owners from the class of entities that would now be entitled to voluntarily contract for deemed employer status. We conclude that it did not. There can be no doubt that premises owners can be, and often are, employers who carry workers’ compensation insurance. It is also true that owners frequently contract with others to perform work on their premises. But there has never been a requirement that an owner must first engage a general contractor to have work done on its premises. The owner is free to do the work with its own employees, to directly contract with others to do the work, or to do the work using some combination of the two. The dissent says an owner can be an employer, but cannot be a general contractor. However, we can find nothing in the statute specifying that an owner who also wears the hat of a general contractor is disqualified from coverage under the Workers’ Compensation Act simply because it chooses to contract directly for work on its premises. Entergy did the very thing the Legislature has long tried to encourage; that is, Entergy became a subscriber by taking out a workers’ compensation policy for the entire work site. It would be an odd result, indeed, if this premises owner, acting as its own general contractor, and further acting in accordance with the State’s strong public policy interest of encouraging workers’ compensation insurance coverage for workers, was now to be excluded from the Act’s protections. See Tex. Workers’ Comp. Comm’n v. Garcia, 898 S.W.2d 504, 510-16 (Tex.1995). Whether a premises owner, general contractor, prime contractor, or subcontractor, Entergy is a “subscriber” of a workers’ compensation policy and therefore satisfies the Legislature’s intent to ensure consistent and reliable coverage to all employees. VI The dissent and the court of appeals contend that the only way to qualify as a “general contractor” is to be included in a “tripartite” relationship in which a general contractor in the middle of the transaction has, first, undertaken to perform work for an owner, and second, contracted part of that work to a subcontractor. 282 S.W.3d 511. But the statute is not written so restrictively as to encompass only a three-party relationship, for several reasons. First, such a construction ignores the single exception found in the last sentence of the definition: “The term does not include a motor carrier that provides a transportation service through the use of an owner operator.” Tex. Lab.Code § 406.121(1). Here, the inclusion of an “owner operator” in the definition’s only exception indicates that the Legislature intended for some owners to qualify as general contractors, while carving out only a narrow class of owners excluded from the term. Id. Since the Legislature clearly specified that the exception apply only to a very narrow class, we decline to read this narrow exception broadly to include all premises owners. Second, the definition is not as restrictive as the dissent supposes because the second sentence of the definition, which specifies types of contractors to be included within the definition, specifically provides that the list is non-exhaustive. Id. (“The term includes a ‘principal contractor,’ ‘original contractor,’ ‘prime contractor,’ or other analogous term.”). If we held that an “owner contractor” is not analogous to a “principal contractor,” “original contractor,” or “prime contractor,” we would essentially be strictly construing a sentence that is explicitly non-exhaustive, as even the dissent concedes. 282 S.W.Bd 511. Inasmuch as we have been instructed that “ ‘[ijncludes’ and ‘in-eluding’ are terms of enlargement and not of limitation or exclusive enumeration,” Tex. Gov’t Code § 311.005(18), we are restrained from circumventing Legislative intent by excluding from a non-exhaustive list a term as similar as “owner contractor.” This is especially true since the original version of the Act, which shared the common purpose of encouraging coverage of subcontractors’ employees, did not define any of these disputed terms, but rather utilized a single term, “subscriber.” See Act of Mar. 28, 1917, 35th Leg., R. S., ch. 103, § 1, Part II, sec. 6,1917 Tex. Gen. Laws 269, 284-85. Since Entergy is a subscriber of a workers’ compensation policy, we cannot read such a non-exhaustive list to evince the Legislature’s intent to remove Entergy from a category in which it would have been included under previous versions of the same act. Additionally, such a reading renders meaningless the part of the definition that qualifies how a general contractor “undertakes to procure the performance of work.” Tex. Lab.Code § 406.121(1) (a general contractor “undertakes to procure the performance of work or a service, either separately or through the use of subcontractors ”) (emphasis added). A reasonable reading of the words, “either separately or through the use of subcontractors,” recognizes the distinction between the owner who takes it upon himself “separately” to procure the performance of work from subcontractors, and the owner who undertakes with a middleman “general contractor” to procure the performance of work “through the use of subcontractors.” See id.; see also Blaok’s Law DICTIONARY 1099 (7th ed. 2000) (“Separate” is defined as “individual; distinct, particular; disconnected”). Certainly, one can hire a bricklayer, electrician, or cabinet maker to remodel his own office building— thereby acting “separately” — or, he can hire a general contractor to do the same thing — thereby acting “through the use-of subcontractors.” This qualifier suggests that the Legislature at least contemplated the existence of a premises owner who may want to act as its own general contractor — an outcome that is by no means uncommon. The dissent’s reading would have us read out this qualifier entirely, but we do not interpret a statute in a manner that renders parts of it meaningless. See Kerrville State Hosp. v. Fernandez, 28 S.W.3d 1, 8 (Tex.2000) (citing City of LaPorte v. Barfield, 898 S.W.2d 288, 292 (Tex.1995)). Finally, we address Williams v. Brown & Root, Inc., the case relied on by the court of appeals in reaching its conclusion that a premises owner is excluded from the Act’s definition of “general contractor.” 947 S.W.2d 673 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1997, no writ). In Williams, a premises owner, Eastman, contracted with Brown & Root to provide occasional construction services. Id. at 675. Brown & Root subcontracted part of the work to Tracer. Id. Tracer’s employee, Williams, was injured on Eastman’s jobsite, so he applied for and received benefits from Eastman’s workers’ compensation policy covering Tracer. Id. After Williams sued Eastman and Brown & Root for his injuries, the trial court granted summary judgment for both defendants, in part because the exclusive remedy was workers’ compensation insurance, which had already been provided. Id. On appeal, the court of appeals rejected the argument that the predecessor to this section of the Act did not contemplate granting immunity to more than one general contractor. Id. at 676-77. Instead, the court of appeals held that Brown & Root qualified as a general contractor because it procured Tracer’s services, adding that even if the statute protected only one general contractor, that party was Brown & Root because “[a] general contractor is any person who contracts directly with the owner.” Id. at 677 (internal citations and quotations omitted). “Arguably,” the court observed, “because Eastman did not contract with the owner, but instead was the owner, Eastman was not protected [by the statute].” Id. Not only was the court’s observation here unnecessary to the decision in the case, it was also erroneous. The court erred by subordinating the statute’s specific definition of “general contractor” in favor of a generic definition outside the statute. Id. at 677 (“A general contractor is any person who contracts directly with the owner ....”) (internal citations and quotations omitted). Since the Legislature provided its own definition for “general contractor,” we elevate the Legislature’s substituted meaning even when it departs from the term’s ordinary meaning. Tex. Gov’t Code § 311.011(b). VII We granted rehearing to address several supplemental arguments made by the respondent and by a number of amici, many of which urge us to address the issue before us by going beyond the statutory text and looking to extrinsic aides such as the Act’s legislative history. But we have been clear that we do not resort to such extrinsic aides unless the plain language is ambiguous. See, e.g., Nash, 220 S.W.3d at 917 (“If a statute is clear and unambiguous, we apply its words according to their common meaning without resort to rules of construction or extrinsic aides.”); Sheshunoff, 209 S.W.3d at 652 n. 4. Even if we assume the definition of “general contractor” is ambiguous, the legislative history of the bill’s passage favors Entergy, not Summers. The legislative history that supports Summers’ outcome is apparent only in bills that failed to pass, yet “we attach no controlling significance to the Legislature’s failure to enact [legislation],” Texas Employment Comm’n v. Holberg, 440 S.W.2d 38, 42 (Tex.1969), for the simple reason that “[i]t is always perilous to derive the meaning of an adopted provision from another provision deleted in the drafting process.” Dist. of Columbia v. Heller, — U.S. -, -, 128 S.Ct. 2783, 2796, 171 L.Ed.2d 637 (2008); see also Dutcher v. Owens, 647 S.W.2d 948, 960 (Tex.1983) (discerning legislative intent from failed bills would be mere “inference” that “would involve little more than conjecture”). As for the legislative history of what did pass, the 1989 overhaul of the Workers’ Compensation Act amended the statutory definition of “subcontractor.” Under the pre-1989 definition, a subcontractor was defined as “a person who has contracted to perform all or any part of the work or services which a prime contractor has contracted with another party to perform.” Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg. R.S., ch. 950, § 1, 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5210, amended by Act of Dec. 11, 1989, 71st Leg.2d C.S., ch.l, § 3.05(a)(5), 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 1, 15 (emphasis added). The Act, as amended, deleted “with another party,” which is the very phrase that Summers argues prevents a premises owner from also being the general contractor. See Wilkerson v. Monsanto Co., 782 F.Supp. 1187, 1188-89 (E.D.Tex.1991) (interpreting “contracted with another party” in the pre-1989 definition to mean the prime contractor and premises owner must be distinct entities). We give weight to the deletion of the phrase “with another party” from the amended definition since we presume that deletions are intentional and that lawmakers enact statutes with complete knowledge of existing law. See Acker v. Tex. Water Comm’n, 790 S.W.2d 299, 301 (Tex.1990). It is, of course, axiomatic that the deletion of language better indicates the Legislature’s intent to remove its effect, rather than to preserve it. Thus, the removal of the phrase “with another party” from the subcontractor definition favors, rather than argues against, an interpretation allowing premises owners to act as their own general contractors for the purpose of workers’ compensation laws. Tex. Lab.Code § 406.121(5). Enforcing the law as written is a court’s safest refuge in matters of statutory construction, and we should always refrain from rewriting text that lawmakers chose, but we should be particularly unwilling to reinsert language that the Legislature has elected to delete. See Simmons v. Arnim, 110 Tex. 309, 220 S.W. 66, 70 (1920) (“Courts must take statutes as they find them.”). Amici cite to statements by some lawmakers that the Act, and particularly the 1989 amendment, was never intended to provide statutory employer status to premises owners. Just as we decline to consider failed attempts to pass legislation, we likewise decline consideration of lawmakers’ post-hoc statements as to what a statute means. It has been our consistent view that “[e]xplanations produced, after the fact, by individual legislators are not statutory history, and can provide little guidance as to what the legislature collectively intended.” In re Doe, 19 S.W.3d 346, 352 (Tex.2000) (citations and quotations omitted). At bottom, at least some of the amici seem to argue that the workers’ compensation scheme is itself inadequate, and that an injured employee should have remedies available apart from the benefits offered by the Act, including the ability to sue a negligent premises owner. As a judicial question, this argument lacks merit because the availability and adequacy of workers’ compensation benefits is a purely legislative matter. VIII Excluding a premises owner who acts as a general contractor also fails to serve the public policy of encouraging workers’ compensation coverage for all workers. See Wingfoot Enters, v. Alvarado, 111 S.W.3d 134, 140, 142 (Tex.2003); Garcia, 893 S.W.2d at 521. As noted, the Act offers incentives to general contractors to provide workers’ compensation coverage broadly to work site employees. In exchange, the Act specifically protects general contractors — who are not direct employers of subcontractors’ employees — by allowing them to assert as a statutorily deemed employer the exclusive remedy defense. In light of this statutory protection, it would seem to be contrary to the state’s public policy to read out of the Act’s protections those premises owners who have otherwise qualified under the Act by purchasing workers’ compensation coverage for their work site employees, but who have chosen to act as their own general contractor. In the dissent’s view, a premises owner who, in complying with the Act, enters into a written agreement to provide workers’ compensation coverage to all contractors and contractors’ employees at its work site would be the only contractor-employer in the contracting chain not afforded the exclusive remedy defense. Presumably, in that event all the downstream contractors would be considered subscribers under the premises owner’s OPIP, thereby qualifying as statutory employers by virtue of their written agreements. See Tex. Lab.Code § 406.123(a). But the dissent would disqualify the premises owner — the one who secured and actually paid for the policy— from being a statutory employer of his subcontractors’ employees. As a result, the premises owner’s own employees, working side-by-side with the other contractors’ employees, would be limited to workers’ compensation benefits for their injuries while the other contractors’ employees injured in the same accident would be permitted to seek tort remedies against the premises owner in addition to the workers’ compensation benefits provided by the premises owner. Unless the statute directs such a result, it makes no sense to read the statute in such an unreasonable manner. The dissent contends that this outcome is a policy choice made by the Legislature, but we interpret the statute in the context of a policy that encourages the provision of workers’ compensation coverage to all workers on a given work site, not discouraging it by denying the statute’s protections to the owner who enters into just such a plan. IX We conclude that Entergy qualifies under the Act’s definition as a “general contractor” and, as a statutory employer, is entitled to assert the exclusive remedy defense. Tex. Lab.Code § 408.001. The judgment of the court of appeals is reversed and a take-nothing judgment is rendered in favor Entergy. Justice HECHT filed a concurring opinion. . Such immunity arises when the statutory employer invokes the "exclusive remedy” defense, which limits the employee's "exclusive remedy” to recovery of workers' compensation benefits. Tex. Lab.Code § 408.001(a). . "A general contractor and a subcontractor may enter into a written agreement under which the general contractor provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage to the subcontractor and the employees of the subcontractor.” Tex. Lab.Code § 406.123(a). . "An agreement under this section makes the general contractor the employer of the subcontractor and the subcontractor's employees only for purposes of the workers’ compensation laws of this state.” Id. § 406.123(e). ."Recovery of workers’ compensation benefits is the exclusive remedy of an employee covered by workers’ compensation insurance coverage or a legal beneficiary against the employer or an agent or employee of the employer for the death of or a work-related injury sustained by the employee.” Id. § 408.001(a). . It has long been the policy of this State, expressed in every version of the Act, that no subscriber can avoid covering an injured worker merely because he was employed by a subcontractor. The 1917 version of the Act created a "deemed” employer status to address this concern: If any subscriber to this Act with the purpose and intention of avoiding any liability imposed by the terms of the Act sublets the whole or any part of the work to be performed or done by said subscriber to any sub-contractor, then in the event any employe[e] of such sub-contractor sustains an injury in the course of his employment he shall be deemed to be and taken for all purposes of this Act to be the employe[e] of the subscriber, and in addition thereto such employe[e] shall have an independent right of action against such sub-contractor, which shall in no way be affected by any compensation to be received by him under the terms and provisions of this Act. Act of Mar. 28, 1917, 35th Leg., R.S., ch. 103, § 1, Part II, sec. 6, 1917 Tex. Gen. Laws 269, 284-85. In 1983, HB 1852 amended the statute by adding a different provision using the term "prime contractor," defined to mean "the person who has undertaken to procure the performance of work or services.” Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg., R.S., ch. 950, § 1, sec. 6, 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5210-11. Then, in 1989, the last major overhaul of the Act kept the "undertaken to” definition, but substituted the term “prime contractor” for "general contractor” and defined that person with the same language: "a person who has undertaken to procure the performance of work or services, either separately or through the use of subcontractors.” Act of Dec. 12, 1989, 71st Leg., 2d C.S., ch. 1, § 3.05, 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 1, 15. The 1917 "deemed employer” provision remains virtually unchanged in the current Labor Code, except the term "subscriber” has been replaced by the term, "person who has workers’ compensation insurance coverage.” Act of May 12, 1993, 73rd Leg., R.S., ch. 269, § 1, 1993 Tex. Gen. Laws 987, 1159 (current version at Tex. Lab.Code § 406.124). . "Prime contractor” was later replaced by the current term, "general contractor,” but the definition remained substantively verbatim. Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg., R.S., ch. 950, § 1, sec. 6(c), 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5210-11 amended by Act of Dec. 12, 1989, 71st Leg., 2d C.S., ch. 1, § 3.05(a)(2), 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 1, 15 (current version at Tex Lab.Code § 406.121(1)). . Act of May 28, 1983, 68th Leg., R.S., ch. 950, § 1, sec. 6(d), 1983 Tex. Gen. Laws 5210, 5211 (current version at Tex. Lab.Code § 406.124). . See, e.g., CLDC Mgmt. Corp. v. Geschke, 72 F.3d 1347, 1349 (7th Cir.1996) (noting that "the Geschkes chose to act as their own general contractor on the job”); Milwaukee & Southeast Wisconsin Dist. Council of Carpenters v. Rowley-Schlimgen, Inc., 2 F.3d 765, 767-68 (7th Cir.1993) ("[T]he Board held that Church’s Fried Chicken ... functioned as its own general contractor in the 'continuing operation of building stores.’ ”); Applewood Landscape & Nursery Co., Inc. v. Hollingsworth, 884 F.2d 1502, 1503 (1st Cir.1989) (noting that appellant who built house for himself "decided to act as his own general contractor, at least in respect to landscaping”); Lazar Bros. Trucking, Inc. v. A & B Excavating, Inc., 365 Ill.App.3d 559, 302 Ill.Dec. 778, 850 N.E.2d 215, 217 (2006) (noting that appellee "sought to develop land it owned” and "decided to act as its own general contractor for the project”); 1000 Va. Ltd. P'ship v. Vertecs Corp., 158 Wash.2d 566, 146 P.3d 423, 426 (2006) (noting that partnership, "acting as its own general contractor, built an apartment complex”); Waggoner Motors, Inc. v. Waverly Church of Christ, 159 S.W.3d 42, 47 (Tenn.Ct.App.2004) (noting that appellant "church, acting as its own general contractor, began constructing a 9,000-square-foot general purpose building in back of its existing building”); Mortenson v. Leatherwood Constr., Inc., 137 S.W.3d 529, 531 (Mo.Ct.App.2004) (noting that school district "acted as its own general contractor” on project to construct addition to school); Wheeler v. T.L. Roofing, Inc., 74 P.3d 499, 501 (Colo.Ct.App.2003) (noting that, on roofing job, ”[p]laintiff acted as his own general contractor”); Cuero v. Ryland Group, Inc., 849 So.2d 326, 329 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.2003) ("Ryland undertook to develop its own property acting as it own general contractor.”); Harris v. Rio Hotel & Casino, Inc., 117 Nev. 482, 25 P.3d 206, 207-08 (2001) (holding that landowner could be deemed a statutory employer entitled to workers’ compensation immunity). . Act of Dec. 12, 1989, 71st Leg., 2d C.S., ch. 1, § 3.05, 1989 Tex. Gen. Laws 1, 15, repealed by Act of May 22, 1993, 73rd Leg., R.S., ch. 269, § 5, 1993 Tex. Gen. Laws 987, 1273 (current version at Tex Lab.Code § 406.121). . Summers and amici point to nine failed bills as evidence the Legislature has “repeatedly” rejected efforts to let premises owners assert the exclusive remedy defense. Chronologically, the bills are HB 2279 from the 74th Legislature (1995), HBs 2630 and 3024 from the 75th Legislature (1997), SB 1404 from the 76th Legislature (1999), HBs 3120 and 3459 from the 77th Legislature (2001), HB 2982 and SB 675 from the 78th Legislature (2003), and HB 1626 from the 79th Legislature (2005). . Even if we were to consider failed bills, these cited bills were not only unsuccessful but, with one possible exception, unrelated to this case. See SB 1404 from the 76th Legislature (1999) (amending “general contractor" to include "an owner or lessor of real property”)-
Justice HECHT, concurring. I think the Court’s construction of the statutory text is reasonable, but so is the dissent’s (though I disagree with much of its analysis), which means that the provisions are ambiguous and can be understood correctly only in the context of the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act as a whole. I join in all but Part VII of the Court’s opinion and write separately to explain my reasons for doing so, which come down to this: the Act encourages coverage, as does the Court’s construction, but the dissent’s does not. I Ascertaining the meaning of a statutory text (or any text for that matter) begins with the language used, and if that language is plain enough, absent some obvious error or an absurd result, that is where the task ends. It matters not what someone thinks the text may have meant to say or now hopes or wishes it said. To look beyond the plain language risks usurping authorship in the name of interpretation. Construing statutes is the judiciary’s prerogative; enacting them is the Legislature’s. To prevent trespass, this Court and others have repeatedly stressed that statutory construction must be faithful to the plain language of the text. But that principle is undermined when it is invoked where it does not apply — that is, when the language of the text is not, in fact, plain. To find plain meaning where it is missing suggests at best that the investigation is insincere or incompetent, at worst that the search is rigged, that the outcome, whatever it is, will always come out to be “plain”. Fidelity to plain meaning is important only if the word “plain” has itself a plain meaning. I fear the phrase “plain language” has been overworked to the point of exhaustion. It has appeared in published Texas cases more often in the past decade than in the prior fifteen, usually as the basis for resolving a dispute over meaning, though it can hardly be said that the prevalence of plain language is increasing, let alone exponentially. I detect no waning in the power of the curse at Babel. To the contrary, more and more this Court is called upon to construe statutes which opposing parties insist are unambiguous and mean very different things. A dispute over meaning does not render a text ambiguous; many disputes lack substance. But when language is subject to more than one reasonable interpretation, it is ambiguous. That is the plain meaning of ambiguous. Of course, reasonable people “will sometimes disagree about what reasonable people can disagree about”, but even so, it is difficult to maintain that language is plain in the face of a substantial, legitimate dispute over its meaning. Only every so often do we come right out and brand a text with the a-word, as if it were a mark of shame. It seems nicer to call a statute unclear or better yet, just leave that implication. But the truth is that the meaning of statutory language is often reasonably disputed and therefore ambiguous to some extent, and resolving reasonable disputes with reason, rather than by denying their reasonableness, would result in a sounder jurisprudence. Two great evils attend this course. One is that judges will use analysis of reasonable disagreements over meaning as a guise for substituting their own preferences in place of the legislature’s. This would trespass upon the boundary between judicial and legislative spheres that is fundamental to our structure of government. The other is that in the search for the meaning of a statutory provision, courts will grasp at all sorts of statements made before, during, and after the process of enactment, whether by legislators or others, as relevant or even authoritative. The Legislature does not speak through individuals — even its members — in committee hearings, in bill analyses and reports, in legislative debate, or in pre-and post-enactment commentary; it speaks through its enactments. Rather than struggle to understand and explain a difficult text, it might seem easier to fall back on a simple insistence that all language have a plain meaning, but doing so risks leaving the impression that the court is not being entirely honest. Courts must scrupulously guard against both evils, but in doing so, cannot ignore a statute’s context that may illumine its meaning. Years ago Special Chief Justice Samuels wrote for this Court: A statute should not be construed in a spirit of detachment as if it were a protoplasm floating around in space. The historical treatment to which a statute may be subjected is aptly set forth in Travelers’ Insurance Co. v. Marshall, 124 Tex. 45, 76 S.W.2d 1007, 1012 ... [1934], where it is said: ‘Generally it may be said that in determining the meaning, intent, and purpose of a law or constitutional provision, the history of the times out of which it grew, and to which it may be rationally supposed to bear some direct relationship, the evils intended to be remedied, and the good to be accomplished, are proper subjects of inquiry.’ II The Workers’ Compensation Act provides that a general contractor who agrees to furnish workers’ compensation insurance coverage to a subcontractor and its employees becomes their employer for purposes of the Act — their statutory employer, if you will — so that their exclusive remedy against the general contractor for on-the-job injuries is compensation benefits. Specifically, the relevant provisions of the Labor Code state: A general contractor and a subcontractor may enter into a written agreement under which the general contractor provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage to the subcontractor and the employees of the subcontractor. “General contractor” means a person who undertakes to procure the performance of work or a service, either separately or through the use of subcontractors. The term includes a “principal contractor,” “original contractor,” “prime contractor,” or other analogous term. The term does not include a motor carrier that provides a transportation service through the use of an owner operator. “Subcontractor” means a person who contracts with a general contractor to perform all or part of the work or services that the general contractor has undertaken to perform. An agreement under this section makes the general contractor the employer of the subcontractor and the subcontractor’s employees only for purposes of the workers’ compensation laws of this state. Recovery of workers’ compensation benefits is the exclusive remedy of an employee covered by workers’ compensation insurance coverage or a legal beneficiary against the employer or an agent or employee of the employer for the death of or a work-related injury sustained by the employee. The question is whether a person who subcontracts work to be done on his own property is a general contractor for purposes of these provisions. In the Court’s first opinion, we all thought from the “plain and ordinary meaning” of the provisions the answer was clearly yes. On rehearing, after reargument and a number of amicus briefs, three Members of the Court now disagree and think that the statutory language “seems clear” and “compels the conclusion” that the answer is no. The difficulty is this: while it is true, as the Court contends, that a person who engages subcontractors to work on his own property is often said to act as his own general contractor and certainly performs that function, more often, as the dissent contends, a general contractor is thought of as a person who works for someone else, like a property owner, subcontracting parts of a job to others as appropriate. On the face of it, either reading of the statute seems reasonable. The text, it must therefore be said, is ambiguous. Scrutinizing the text does not resolve the difficulty. The statutory definition of “general contractor” has three components. The first is this prescription: “ ‘General contractor’ means a person who undertakes to procure the performance of work or a service, either separately or through the use of subcontractors.” A premises owner who undertakes to procure the performance of work or service on his property would appear to fit this definition of general contractor. A premises owner can undertake to procure work or service for himself, through subcontractors for example, or he may employ someone else to procure the work or service — the subcontractors — for him. Nothing in the statute’s use of the word “undertakes” suggests any difference in its ordinary meaning. The second component of the statutory definition is a non-exclusive list of examples: “The term includes a ‘principal contractor,’ ‘original contractor,’ ‘prime contractor,’ or other analogous term.” The dissent asserts that “we have for decades defined a contractor as ‘any person who, in the pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to do a specific piece of work for other persons ....’”, quoting a 1942 decision of this Court, Industrial Indemnity Exchange v. Southard, which in turn quoted a 1924 decision of the commission of appeals, Shannon v. Western Indemnity Co. But the issue in Southard was whether the claimant was an independent contractor, and the quoted passage addresses that issue, as is clear from its context: Many definitions of what is meant by the term ‘independent contractor’ have been given. They all rest substantially on the same basic principle. In the case of Shannon v. Western Indemnity Co., Tex. Com.App., 257 S.W. 522, 524, this Court announced, as the basis for the opinion rendered in that case, the following definition: ‘A contractor is any person who, in the pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to do a specific piece of work for other persons, using his own means and methods, without submitting himself to their control in respect to all its details.’ The issue was the same in Shannon, a case decided by the commission of appeals. Certainly, a person could not act as his own independent contractor; his independence would be severely compromised. But nothing in either case suggests that an owner cannot act as his own general contractor. The dissent points out correctly that the Legislature has sometimes used “general contractor” in a way that excludes a premises owner. But the Court cites instances in which a person who hires subcontractors directly is said to act as his own general contractor, suggesting that it is a common expression. One cannot be sure from the text alone whether the Legislature meant for owners to be, or not to be, general contractors. The list of examples is specifically nonexclusive but obviously intended to illustrate similarities. The dissent argues that a premises owner cannot be a general contractor because the 1979 edition of Black’s Law Dictionary defined a “contractor” as “a person who, in the pursuit of any independent business, undertakes to do a specific piece of work for other persons”. But the rest of the definition is not so restrictive: This term is strictly applicable to any person who enters into a contract, but is commonly reserved to designate one who, for a fixed price, undertakes to procure the performance of works or services on a large scale, or the furnishing of goods in large quantities, whether for the public or a company or individual. Such are generally classified as general contractors (responsible for the entire job) and subcontractors (responsible for only portion of job; e.g. plumber, carpenter). The definitions describe someone who might or might not be the owner of the jobsite. The same dictionary gives this definition of “general contractor”: One who contracts for the construction of an entire building or project, rather than for a portion of the work. The general contractor hires subcontractors (e.g. plumbing, electrical, etc.), coordinates all work, and is responsible for payment to subcontractors. Also called “prime” contractor. It defines “prime contractor” thusly: The party to a building contract who is charged with the total construction and who enters into sub-contracts for such work as electrical, plumbing, and the like. Also called “general contractor.” Neither of these definitions excludes a job-site owner from acting as his own general contractor. Other dictionaries are similarly inconclusive. The second component does not clearly indicate whether a jobsite owner is or is not to be treated as a general contractor. The third component of the statutory definition is an exclusion: “The term does not include a motor carrier that provides a transportation service through the use of an owner operator.” The Court argues that expressing only one exclusion suggests that no others exist. The dissent offers this tautological explanation of the exclusion: “the Legislature likely expressly excluded motor carriers from the general-contractor definition to make it clear that, even though they might otherwise fit the general-contractor construct, they are to be treated differently.” I dare say that it was not merely likely but absolutely certain that by excluding motor carriers, the Legislature meant to make clear they are to be treated differently. But the dissent misses the Court’s point: if the Legislature intended to make clear who should not be treated as a general contractor, as we all think it did, and it listed motor carriers but not premises owners, then premises owners should be treated as general contractors. The statutory definition of “subcontractor” — “a person who contracts with a general contractor to perform all or part of the work or services that the general contractor has undertaken to perform” — does not help clarify the matter. A premises owner may be a general contractor who “undertake[s] to perform” work by contracting with subcontractors. Examined with precision, the statutory text can reasonably be read to provide that a person who undertakes to procure work or service is no less a general contractor because he also happens to own the premises where the job is to be done, and no less a statutory employer when he provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage for subcontractors and their employees. That, of course, is why the Court was unanimous in its first opinion. The dissenters too quickly dismiss a position they so recently embraced unreservedly; sometimes wrong, they are never in doubt. But their basic argument has weight: general contractor often refers to someone who works for the job owner. This reading of the statute is a reasonable one, in my view, but it is not the only reasonable one. Ill The disagreement in this case is not over words and cannot be resolved with dictionaries. It is over consequences and can only be settled by examining how the statutory provisions fit in the context of the Workers’ Compensation Act as a whole. The issue for the Court is not whether it is good policy to treat a person who arranges for work to be done on his property as a general contractor, something we cannot decide, but whether such treatment is most consistent with the policies embedded in the Act. For four reasons, I believe it is. First: The Act’s “decided bias” is for coverage. Although employees and employers can opt out, an employee has only a limited time frame in which to do so, and an employer is penalized for doing so by loss of his common law defenses to an employee’s claim of injury. The Act’s encouragement of coverage is furthered by ineentivizing general contractors to provide workers’ compensation coverage for subcontractors and their employees. No one questions that the Act does this by providing such general contractors the protection of the exclusive remedy. To refuse the incentive when the general contractor happens to own the jobsite would discourage coverage, contrary to the policy of the Act. The dissent responds that because the Act is in derogation of common law rights, it should not be “applied to cases not clearly within its purview”. But it has long been “the settled policy of this State to construe liberally the provisions of the [Act] in order to effectuate the purposes for which it was enacted.” Coverage is a fundamental purpose of the Act. Second: Since 1917, the Act has expressly prohibited a subscriber from using a subcontractor to circumvent coverage. To prohibit a subscriber who owns the jobsite from engaging subcontractors to avoid paying compensation benefits, while at the same time discouraging the subscriber from providing compensation benefits by denying the exclusive remedy protection, would be a perverse result indeed. The dissent dismisses the policy of discouraging avoidance of coverage, contained in the Act since 1917, as “irrelevant”, but there is simply no reason to think that the Act has ever beckoned with one hand and shunned with the other. Third: Since 1968, the Act has provided that a subscribing employer may agree in writing, before a worker has been injured, to assume a third party’s liability for the injury. Such agreements appear to be common among contractors on construction jobsites If the employer is a subcontractor and the third party is a general contractor who has provided coverage for the worker, the worker’s exclusive remedy against both is limited to compensation benefits. If the general contractor were not afforded the same protection because he owned the jobsite, the worker could recover common law damages against him, and he in turn could require the subcontractor to assume the liability, thereby defeating the protection of the exclusive remedy to the worker’s own employer, even though he and the general contractor both provided compensation benefits. In this case, Entergy had just such an indemnity agreement with IMC. If Summers can recover common law damages from Enter-gy (having already received compensation benefits, of course), Entergy can require reimbursement by IMC, Summers’ direct employer. In this situation, the workers’ compensation system provides nothing to any employer, even though all employers have agreed to provide compensation benefits to all employees, which the injured worker himself requested and received. This would be an even more perverse disruption of the policies of the Act. The dissent argues that the economic effect of indemnity agreements is minimal because an employer can obtain compensation coverage at a reduced cost through owner-provided policies like Entergy’s and can buy general liability insurance for the increased risk of damages not limited by providing compensation coverage. But compensation insurance that provides no protection is no bargain, however reduced the cost, and having to buy two policies for an increased risk when one policy for a limited risk should do is perverse. The fact that employers often do so, the dissent says, shows they know they must, but all it shows for sure is an unwillingness to put too much trust in the fairness of the law. Anyway, according to the dissent, the problem is “a policy choice the Legislature made.” I would not blame the Legislature for a problem that can be avoided by a reasonable construction of the Act. Fourth: The Act creates a comprehensive system, and treating similarly situated contractors and employers differently would disrupt that system unnecessarily. There is no apparent reason why a premises owner should have the exclusive remedy protection when he provides workers’ compensation insurance covering his own employees engaged in particular work but not when he provides the same coverage for his subcontractors and their employees, retained to do the same work. The dissent’s only response is that whimsy is a legislative prerogative. The Act, first passed in 1913, provides an injured worker guaranteed but limited wage and medical benefits quickly and without regard to fault, in exchange for which the worker foregoes common law damage claims against his employer. Not long ago, we wrote: “The [A]ct, which was part of a nationwide compensation movement, was perceived to be in the best interests of both employers and employees.” Much earlier, we said: Workmen’s compensation laws have become part of our public policy. The object of the laws was to do away with the issues of negligence, unavoidable accident, assumed risk, contributory negligence, and other like issues, and to fix the amount recoverable free of any uncertainty. The old system of settling disputes was unsatisfactory, and modern business methods demanded that compensation for injuries to employees be not controlled by the fault or negligence of the employee, but should rest upon broader, more humane, and more certain rules. An owner-run jobsite is not uncommon. No one has suggested a reason why a general contractor who works for an owner can submit to the obligations and protections of the workers’ compensation system as a statutory employer for all the workers on the job, while the owner himself cannot, other than to subvert the system. Of course, the Legislature needs no reason to differentiate between general contractors who do not own the jobsite and those who do. But we are required to presume that the Legislature has acted reasonably, and in any event, the statutory provisions at issue draw no such distinction. While their silence on the subject may be read either way, we should assume that the Legislature intended that the treatment of general contractors be consistent with the Act as a whole. For these reasons, I conclude that of the two constructions of the statutory text, both reasonable on their face, the Court’s is stronger. IV The argument is made, however, that the Legislature is not likely to have intended by its definition of “general contractor” to include a person who has work done on his own property because that would have been a major change in the law that would have drawn attention when in fact it was enacted without note. The Court followed the same line of reasoning in Energy Service Co. of Bowie, Inc. v. Superior Snubbing Services, Inc.,’ where we construed an amendment to the statute governing the enforceability of indemnity agreements long used in the oil patch. The industry practice was well-settled, had never been criticized, and continued unchanged after the amendment. We concluded that “[ajbsent any identifiable reason for a substantive change to have been made in the statutory provision, or any extra-textual indication that one was intended, or any resulting change in industry practice, we think the most reasonable construction of [the amended statute] is the same as its ... predecessors.” The problem with the argument in this case is that it has never been clear when a person is considered the statutory employer of a subcontractor or his employees, liable to provide the workers’ compensation benefits, and entitled to the exclusive remedy protection of the Act. Before 1983, the only provision in the Workers’ Compensation Act relating to coverage of a subcontractor was article 8307, section 6, which, as noted above, was enacted in 1917 and prohibited a subscriber from subcontracting work “with the purpose and intention” of avoiding the liability for workers’ compensation benefits he would have if his own employees were injured doing the work. In that situation, the subcontractor’s injured employee was deemed to be the subscriber’s employee and therefore entitled to compensation benefits. In three consecutive legislative sessions beginning in 1977, six bills were introduced, the ostensible purpose of which was to eliminate section 6’s subjective “purpose and intention” trigger and provide greater certainty in determining whether a subscriber should be treated as the statutory employer of his subcontractors and their employees. The premise of the bills was that subscribers were being treated as statutory employers already, but not always predictably or consistently. The bills proposed to amend or replace section 6 and provide, variously, either that coverage extended to subcontractors unless otherwise agreed, that coverage did not extend unless otherwise agreed, or something in between. In brief: • HB 1584, introduced in 1977, would have amended section 6 and provided simply that “under a bona fide subcontract made in good faith”, workers’ compensation coverage was not provided. HB 1584 passed the House but was left pending in the Senate committee. • HB 1585, also introduced in 1977, would have replaced section 6 altogether and provided that a subscriber’s coverage extended to subcontractors and their employees, absent an agreement to the c