City of Houston v. Collins

515 S.W.3d 467, 2017 WL 421988, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 828
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 31, 2017
DocketNO. 14-16-00449-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 515 S.W.3d 467 (City of Houston v. Collins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Houston v. Collins, 515 S.W.3d 467, 2017 WL 421988, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 828 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

William J. Boyce, Justice

Appellee Paula Collins sued the City of Houston after she was injured when a Houston police officer struck her vehicle. In this interlocutory appeal, the City contends the trial court erred by denying the City’s plea to the jurisdiction. The City argues there is no waiver of its governmental immunity from suit because the police officer was entitled to official immunity. We reverse and render judgment dismissing Collins’s suit against the City.

Background

Houston Police Department Officer James Brown was in a parked patrol vehicle on the evening of June 26, 2009, when he overheard the following radio broadcast from Officer Lomorris Forniss:

I’m southbound East Tex Freeway, just crossing over Aldine Mail Route. I have a male on a motorcycle, reckless driving. He’s standing up on the thing at a high rate of speed.

A minute later, the dispatcher asked Officer Forniss for an update, and Officer Forniss responded:

He’s gunning it. He’s taking off right now. We’re getting ready to come up to Little York. He’s in the fast lane.

The dispatcher replied:

That’s clear. Any 17-40 B units close to the freeway can check by 59 approaching Little York? Male on a motorcycle.

Because he was nearby, Officer Brown radioed that he would respond to assist Officer Forniss.

While en route to assist, Officer Brown saw Collins’s vehicle exit a parking lot and turn right onto the road in front of Officer Brown. As Officer Brown approached in the right lane, Collins changed lanes to the left lane. Collins then changed lanes back to the right lane and came to a stop in front of Officer Brown. Officer Brown struck Collins’s vehicle while attempting to go around Collins, causing Collins’s vehicle to roll onto its side.

Collins sued the City for personal injuries in 2010, claiming that Officer Brown’s reckless operation of an emergency vehicle caused the accident. The City filed a plea to the jurisdiction (the “first plea”) in which it asserted that it was entitled to governmental immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act. The trial court granted the City’s first plea, and Collins filed an interlocutory appeal. See Collins v. City of Houston, No. 14-13-00533-CV, 2014 WL 3051231, at *1 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] July 3, 2014, no pet.) (mem. op.).

In that appeal, neither party disputed that Officer Brown was acting within the course and scope of his employment when he responded to the radio call for assistance. Id. at *4. The issues before us were whether Officer Brown’s injury-producing conduct was discretionary or ministerial, and whether Officer Brown acted in good faith. Id. We concluded that Officer Brown was performing a discretionary function at the time of the accident. Id. at *4-5. We further concluded, however, that the City [471]*471failed to establish that Officer Brown acted in good faith because the City relied on an unsupported assumption that Officer Brown was responding to a call concerning a motorcyclist who was fleeing from police. We stated as follows:

The City’s affidavits analyze Officer Brown’s response based on the assumption that the motorcyclist evaded a traffic stop and fled from police. The radio transcript excerpts proffered into evidence do not state that the motorcyclist evaded arrest or was fleeing from police; they also do not state that an emergency situation existed. Instead, the radio transcripts reveal that the dispatcher requested assistance to apprehend a motorcyclist who was driving recklessly.
To establish good faith under these circumstances, the City was required to demonstrate that a reasonably prudent officer could conclude that the need to respond to a speeding motorcyclist driving recklessly outweighed the risk to the public caused by the officer’s action in exceeding the speed limit while responding. We do not exclude the possibility that the City could do so; however, on this record, the City did not address such a balance of risks. Instead, the City’s proffered evidence focuses on a materially different balance of risks involving whether a reasonably prudent officer could conclude that the need to respond to a motorcyclist who evaded a traffic stop and fled from police outweighed the risk of speeding while responding.
Because it relies on assumptions that are not supported by the record, the expert opinions proffered by the City do not address whether Officer Brown’s decision to exceed the speed limit was justified based on the call for assistance he received under the specific circumstances in which he received it. On this record, therefore, the City failed to establish that Officer Brown acted in good faith in a circumstance that did not involve the driver of a motor vehicle fleeing arrest.

Id. at *6. We reversed the trial court’s order granting the plea to the jurisdiction and remanded for further proceedings. Id. at *8.

The City filed a second plea to the jurisdiction in February 2016 (the “second plea”). The City submitted new affidavits with the second plea and alleged that the new evidence conclusively established that Officer Brown acted in good faith in responding to the radio call of a speeding and reckless motorcyclist who fled from police.

The trial court denied the City’s second plea on May 17, 2016. This appeal followed.

Analysis

In a single issue, the City contends the trial court erred in denying the City’s plea to the jurisdiction because Officer Brown was entitled to official immunity, and thus was not “personally liable to the claimant according to Texas law” so as to waive the City’s governmental immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act.

I. Standard of Review

If a governmental unit has immunity from a pending claim, a trial court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction as to that claim. Rusk State Hosp. v. Black, 392 S.W.3d 88, 95 (Tex. 2012). A plea to the jurisdiction questioning the trial court’s jurisdiction raises a question of law that we review de novo. State v. Holland, 221 S.W.3d 639, 642 (Tex. 2007).

The standard of review for a plea to the jurisdiction “generally mirrors that of a summary judgment under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a(c).” Tex. [472]*472Dep’t of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 228 (Tex. 2004). When a governmental unit challenges the existence of jurisdictional facts and the parties submit evidence relevant to the jurisdictional challenge, we consider that evidence when necessary to resolve the jurisdictional issues. Id. at 227. We credit as true all evidence favoring the nonmovant, and we indulge every reasonable inference and resolve any doubts in the nonmovant’s favor. Id. at 228.

If the evidence raises a fact issue regarding jurisdiction, the plea to the jurisdiction must be denied. Id. at 227-28. If, however, the relevant evidence is undisputed or does not present a jurisdictional fact issue, the plea should be granted. Id. at 228.

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Bluebook (online)
515 S.W.3d 467, 2017 WL 421988, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 828, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-houston-v-collins-texapp-2017.