City of Laredo v. Fausto Torres

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 4, 2023
Docket04-22-00453-CV
StatusPublished

This text of City of Laredo v. Fausto Torres (City of Laredo v. Fausto Torres) 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 Laredo v. Fausto Torres, (Tex. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals San Antonio, Texas MEMORANDUM OPINION

No. 04-22-00453-CV

CITY OF LAREDO, Appellant

v.

Fausto TORRES, Appellee

From the 49th Judicial District Court, Webb County, Texas Trial Court No. 2021-CVF-000333-D1 Honorable Joe Lopez, Judge Presiding

Opinion by: Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice

Sitting: Rebeca C. Martinez, Chief Justice Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice Lori I. Valenzuela, Justice

Delivered and Filed: October 4, 2023

REVERSED AND RENDERED

Appellant the City of Laredo appeals the trial court’s denial of its plea to the jurisdiction.

The City argues the trial court did not have jurisdiction over appellee Fausto Torres’s claims

because, among other things, Torres failed to comply with notice of claim requirements, it did not

own the property where Torres’s injury occurred, and it had no actual knowledge of the premises

defect. Because we conclude the City had no actual knowledge of the premises defect, we reverse

the trial court’s denial of the plea to the jurisdiction and render judgment for the City dismissing

this case for lack of jurisdiction. 04-22-00453-CV

BACKGROUND

On February 18, 2019, a light pole in front of the Webb County Courthouse fell on Torres,

while he was installing bleachers for a parade. Torres filed suit on February 18, 2021 against the

City, his employer Laredo Independent School District (LISD), and American Electric Power for

negligence and gross negligence seeking damages for his injuries. Four months later, Torres

amended his petition to add Webb County as a defendant, and Webb County filed a plea to the

jurisdiction, which the trial court later granted. Torres also nonsuited his lawsuit against LISD and

American Electric Power. By April 2022, the City filed a plea to the jurisdiction. After a hearing,

the trial court denied the City’s plea to the jurisdiction on July 22, 2022. This appeal followed.

TORT CLAIMS ACT NOTICE OF CLAIM REQUIREMENTS

The City argues the trial court erred by denying its plea to the jurisdiction because Torres’s

notice of claim did not satisfy the city charter requirements and therefore did not comply with

notice requirements in Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 101.101(b). TEX. CIV. PRAC. &

REM. CODE § 101.101(b).

A. Law

Notice of a claim “is a prerequisite to subject-matter jurisdiction and, thus, a question of

law we review de novo.” Worsdale v. City of Killeen, 578 S.W.3d 57, 66 (Tex. 2019) (footnote

omitted). Section 101.101(a) provides a governmental entity must “receive notice of a claim

against it” within six months of an alleged injury. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 101.101(a); see

Worsdale, 578 S.W.3d at 62. The notice must describe the incident, its time and place, and the

damage or injury claimed. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 101.101(a); Worsdale, 578 S.W.3d at

62. City charters, like the one in this case, sometimes include additional or separate notice

requirements a claimant must fulfill in addition to section 101.101(a) requirements. See TEX. CIV.

PRAC. & REM. CODE § 101.101(b); Worsdale, 578 S.W.3d at 62.

-2- 04-22-00453-CV

Notice requirements in section 101.101(a) and (b) “do not apply if the governmental unit

has actual notice . . . that the claimant has received some injury.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE

§ 101.101(c). Actual notice under section 101.101(c) requires the governmental unit to have

knowledge of (1) the injury, (2) “the governmental unit’s alleged fault producing or contributing

to the . . . injury”, and (3) “the identity of the parties involved.” Worsdale, 578 S.W.3d at 62, 63,

68–77 (quoting Cathey v. Booth, 900 S.W.2d 339, 341 (Tex. 1995) and reaffirming Cathey as

“settled law . . . correctly decided in the first instance.”); see also id. at 70 (“Though not a

definition in a strict sense, ‘actual notice’ in subsection (c) essentially replicates subsection (a)’s

‘notice of a claim’ requirement because subsection (c) tethers actual notice to injuries suffered by

a ‘claimant.’”); see, e.g., Reyes v. Jefferson County, 601 S.W.3d 795, 798 (Tex. 2020) (per curiam).

Actual notice is not “potential notice” and does not exist “whenever a governmental unit

has notice of any . . . injury” because “[m]any governmental units may, in the ordinary course of

events, have knowledge of . . . injuries . . . but no warning—‘notice’—that a lawsuit might

eventually be filed alleging the governmental unit was responsible.” Worsdale, 578 S.W.3d at 69,

72, 75–76 (rejecting “plain and simple” standard construing section 101.101(c) as “notice of

any . . . injury” as superficial because it would render notice requirements in sections (a) and (b)

of 101.101 “a dead letter”). In other words, knowledge an injury has occurred, standing alone, is

insufficient for actual notice. See id. at 63–64 (“It is not enough that a governmental unit should

have investigated an incident as a prudent person would have, or that it did investigate, perhaps as

part of routine safety procedures, or that it should have known from the investigation it conducted

that it might have been at fault.” (quoting Tex. Dep’t of Criminal Justice v. Simons, 140 S.W.3d

338, 347–48 (Tex. 2004) (internal quotation marks omitted)).

The governmental unit must be “subjectively aware that it may be responsible

for . . . injury . . . in the manner ultimately alleged by the claimant,” regardless of whether the

-3- 04-22-00453-CV

governmental unit “believed it was liable or not.” Id. at 67, 77; see also id. at 70–71 (providing

actual notice requires “not only knowledge of some harm but also information sufficient to (1)

identify the particular loss ultimately alleged and (2) alert the governmental unit to something

impending—for any number of reasons, but especially to allow preparations to be made”).

Subjective awareness may be proved by circumstantial evidence. See id. at 66.

The existence of actual notice “albeit a question of law, always turns on the particular facts

of a case.” Id. at 76. Actual notice may be determined as a matter of law when the facts are

undisputed. Id. at 77. “When actual-notice evidence is disputed, a fact question arises.” Id. at 66.

“When a jurisdictional fact issue is intertwined with the merits, the court cannot grant the plea, but

when the jurisdictional issue is not intertwined with the merits, we must defer to the trial court’s

express or implied factual determinations that are supported by sufficient evidence.” Id. “If the

evidence creates a fact question regarding the jurisdictional issue, then the trial court cannot grant

the plea to the jurisdiction, and the fact issue will be resolved by the factfinder.” Freeman v. City

of Waxahachie, 636 S.W.3d 306, 309 (Tex. App.—Waco 2021, pet. denied); see also City of San

Antonio v. Maspero, 640 S.W.3d 523, 528 (Tex. 2022).

B. Analysis

In support of its plea to the jurisdiction, the City attached its charter along with Torres’s

notice of claim and a letter from Texas Mutual accompanying the notice of claim. The City Charter

section 1.07 provides:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Texas Department of Criminal Justice v. Simons
140 S.W.3d 338 (Texas Supreme Court, 2004)
University of Texas-Pan American v. Aguilar
251 S.W.3d 511 (Texas Supreme Court, 2008)
City of Dallas v. Reed
258 S.W.3d 620 (Texas Supreme Court, 2008)
Denton County v. Beynon
283 S.W.3d 329 (Texas Supreme Court, 2009)
The University of Texas at Austin v. Hayes
327 S.W.3d 113 (Texas Supreme Court, 2010)
Reyes v. City of Laredo
335 S.W.3d 605 (Texas Supreme Court, 2010)
State Department of Highways & Public Transportation v. Payne
838 S.W.2d 235 (Texas Supreme Court, 1992)
Cathey v. Booth
900 S.W.2d 339 (Texas Supreme Court, 1995)
City of El Paso v. Chacon
148 S.W.3d 417 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
County of Harris v. Eaton
573 S.W.2d 177 (Texas Supreme Court, 1978)
State v. Tennison
509 S.W.2d 560 (Texas Supreme Court, 1974)
City of Denton v. Rachel Paper
376 S.W.3d 762 (Texas Supreme Court, 2012)
John Sampson v. the University of Texas at Austin
500 S.W.3d 380 (Texas Supreme Court, 2016)
Suarez v. City of Texas City
465 S.W.3d 623 (Texas Supreme Court, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
City of Laredo v. Fausto Torres, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-laredo-v-fausto-torres-texapp-2023.