City of Houston v. Ranjel

407 S.W.3d 880, 2013 WL 3945971, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 9607
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 1, 2013
DocketNos. 14-12-00458-CV, 14-12-00459-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 407 S.W.3d 880 (City of Houston v. Ranjel) 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. Ranjel, 407 S.W.3d 880, 2013 WL 3945971, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 9607 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

J. BRETT BUSBY, Justice.

The City of Houston brings this interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s denial of its plea to the jurisdiction filed in two consolidated cases arising out of the same incident at Bush Intercontinental Airport (the Airport). Houston contends the trial court erred when it denied Houston’s plea to the jurisdiction because appellees failed to raise a fact issue that Houston waived its governmental immunity. We conclude that the Texas Tort Claims Act does not waive Houston’s immunity because neither the pleadings nor the jurisdictional evidence show that a Houston employee was operating or using the motor-driven equipment and tangible personal property that caused the incident. Accordingly, we reverse and render judgment dismissing ap-pellees’ claims against Houston for want of jurisdiction.

Background

A. The APM strikes Turner and Cordero.

Houston owns and operates the Airport, which includes an automated people mover or APM system. The APM is a remotely controlled, above-ground train that transports passengers along elevated guideways from terminal to terminal. Because Houston and its employees do not possess the knowledge to operate and maintain the APM, Houston has always retained a third party to perform these functions. At all times relevant to this appeal, the third-party operator was appellee Johnson Controls, Inc.

Houston decided to expand the APM system at the Airport. This expansion was called the Phase 3 Project and it included the construction of an additional APM guideway connecting Terminals B and C at the Airport. Houston contracted with Continental Airlines, Inc. to manage the Phase 3 Project. Among the companies involved in the Phase 3 Project were Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc. (PBS & J) and Webber, L.L.C. When the Phase 3 Project reached substantial completion, the new guideway was turned over to Johnson Controls for inclusion under its contract with Houston to operate and maintain the APM System. It is undisputed that once the new guideway was turned over to Johnson Controls, Johnson Controls controlled access to the guideway. Even after the guideway was turned over, however, punch-list items remained to be completed on the Phase 3 Project.

On October 26, 2010, a Johnson Controls employee, James Farr, escorted Juan Cordero and two other Webber employees into an area of the new guideway where trains were not allowed due to the ongoing work. They were later joined at the work-site by Travis Turner, a senior project manager for PBS & J. At some point, [884]*884Farr left the worksite. According to Nicolas Wilhite, another Johnson Controls employee, Cordero, Turner, and the other contractors were supposed to be working only in the maintenance area that was not part of the active line and was not activated that morning. A few hours after arriving in the work area, Turner and Cordero walked onto a part of the guideway where the trains were running and they were struck by a train that was in regular service between terminals. Turner died as a result of his injuries and Cordero suffered incapacitating injuries.

B. The Turner and Cordero appellees sue Houston.

The Turner appellees — Jeanie Turner, individually and as representative of Turner’s estate; Nathan Turner; and Derrick Turner — filed suit against Houston and numerous other defendants. In their third amended petition, the Turner appel-lees alleged that Houston and its employees contributed to the accident that caused Turner’s death by negligently failing to provide a safe operating APM system. They then alleged that Houston’s negligent acts included, but were not limited to (1) the failure of Houston’s “employees to establish and/or communicate safety requirements regarding the APM system” and (2) the “failure of its employees to implement adequate safeguards to prevent incidents such as the subject incident from occurring.”

Appellee Maria Ranjel filed suit against Houston and other defendants individually and on behalf of Cordero. In her first amended petition, Ranjel alleged that Houston, “by and through its employees, committed acts of omission and commission, which collectively and severally constituted negligence, and which were proximate causes of the injuries sustained by ... Cordero.” She also alleged that Houston had a duty to Cordero to provide a safe operating inter-terminal train system and APM. She went on to allege that Houston’s negligent acts included (1) “the failure of its employees to establish and/or communicate safety requirements for the APM train system” and (2) “the failure of its employees to implement adequate safeguards to prevent incidents from occurring, such as the subject incident.”

Johnson Controls filed a cross-claim for contribution and proportionate responsibility against Houston. Johnson Controls later admitted that its cross-claim is derivative of the Turner and Cordero appellees’ rights to recover against Houston.

C. Houston files a plea to the jurisdiction, and all parties submit evidence regarding jurisdiction.

The lawsuits were eventually consolidated and Houston filed a single plea to the jurisdiction, arguing the Turner and Cordero appellees had not alleged a cause of action against Houston that falls within the scope of a waiver of its governmental immunity. Houston’s principal argument was that appellees did not allege a Houston employee used or operated the train in a negligent manner. Accordingly, Houston contends that its immunity remained intact, the trial court did not have subject matter jurisdiction, and appellees’ claims (including Johnson Controls’ derivative claims) must be dismissed.

In addition to challenging appellees’ pleadings, Houston attached evidence to its plea to the jurisdiction challenging the existence of the jurisdictional facts alleged by appellees. In turn, appellees attached evidence as well as proposed amended petitions to their responses to Houston’s plea. The evidence submitted by the respective parties, consisting of excerpts [885]*885from six depositions, is undisputed.1 The evidence falls into three general categories: (1) operation and maintenance of the APM system on a day-to-day basis; (2) development of policies related to the operation and maintenance of the APM system; and (3) Houston’s involvement in the APM system the day of the fatal train strike at issue.

1. Operation and maintenance of the APM system

The evidence shows that Houston owned the APM system but did not operate or maintain it on a day-to-day basis because its employees lacked the knowledge and expertise to do so. At all times relevant to this appeal, Houston contracted with Johnson Controls to operate and maintain the APM system.2 Control of the APM extension built in the Phase 3 Project had been turned over to Johnson Controls prior to the train strike involved in this appeal.

While the APM system contract between Johnson Controls and Houston does not appear in the appellate record, several witnesses testified regarding its content and the respective roles of Johnson Controls and Houston. According to this testimony, the contract determined how many trains were to be operating on a daily basis and provided that Johnson Controls, pursuant to the contract, remotely operated the trains on a daily basis from a Control Center.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
407 S.W.3d 880, 2013 WL 3945971, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 9607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-houston-v-ranjel-texapp-2013.