Olivares v. Brown & Gay Engineering, Inc.

401 S.W.3d 363, 2013 WL 1775998, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 5119
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 25, 2013
DocketNo. 14-12-00198-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 401 S.W.3d 363 (Olivares v. Brown & Gay Engineering, Inc.) 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
Olivares v. Brown & Gay Engineering, Inc., 401 S.W.3d 363, 2013 WL 1775998, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 5119 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

TRACY CHRISTOPHER, Justice.

Appellants Zuleima Olivares, individually and as the representative of the estate of Pedro Olivares, Jr., and Pedro Olivares appeal the trial court’s granting of appel-lees Brown & Gay Engineering, Inc.’s (Brown & Gay) and Mike Stone Enterprises, Inc.’s (MSE) pleas to the jurisdiction. In their pleas, appellees asserted that they are immune from suit based on their status as governmental employees, as defined [367]*367in the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA), sued in their official capacity. Appellants argue that the trial court erred in granting appellees’ pleas to the jurisdiction because appellees have not shown that they meet the statutory definition of governmental employees. We reverse and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.Factual and Procedural Background

On January 1, 2007, Pedro Olivares, Jr. and his wife were traveling westbound on the Westpark Tollway near Dairy Ashford Road in Harris County when they were struck by a vehicle driven by Michael Lad-son. According to appellants, Ladson was traveling on the Tollway in the wrong direction after entering the westbound lanes near Gaston Road in Fort Bend County, approximately eight and one-half miles from the accident scene. Pedro Olivares, Jr. sustained severe bodily injuries resulting in death.

Appellants asserted negligence and premises defect claims against multiple defendants. These claims involved allegations that the various defendants failed to design and install proper signs, warning flashers, and traffic-control devices near the area where Ladson entered the Tollway. This court previously addressed the trial court’s denial of two other co-defendants’ (Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority (FBCTRA) and Texas Department of Transportation) pleas to the jurisdiction. Fort Bend Cty. Toll Rd. Auth. v. Olivares, 816 S.W.3d 114 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, no pet.) (reversing and remanding in part, and reversing and rendering in part)1; Tex. Dep’t of Transp. v. Olivares, 316 S.W.3d 89 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, no pet.) (affirming in part, reversing and remanding in part, and reversing and rendering in part). After remand, those defendants were non-suited.2 The only remaining defendants in the case are Brown & Gay and MSE.

In their third amended petition, appellants allege that Brown & Gay, a Texas engineering company that performed the design work on the Tollway pursuant to agreements with, among others, FBCTRA, failed to properly design signs and traffic layouts in accordance with the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and breached the engineering standard of care. Appellants also allege that MSE, a private Texas company (also d/b/a Professional Project Management Services) that contracted with FBCTRA to operate the Tollway, negligently delayed and denied safety recommendations and requests from professional engineers to install lights that would have improved safety.

Both Brown & Gay and MSE filed pleas to the jurisdiction based on governmental immunity, arguing that they constitute governmental employees, as defined in the TTCA, sued in their official capacity. The trial court granted Brown & Gay’s and MSE’s jurisdictional pleas. Appellants now appeal the trial court’s granting of appellees’ pleas.

II. Governmental Immunity

Generally, in Texas, a governmental unit is immune from tort liability and suit unless the Legislature has waived immunity. City of Galveston v. State, 217 S.W.3d 466, 468 (Tex.2007); MSP Corp. v. Bd. of Trustees of Galveston Wharves, 297 S.W.3d 483, 487 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2009, no pet.).3 FBCTRA is a local [368]*368government corporation and, therefore, a governmental unit for purposes of the TTCA. Olivares 1, 316 S.W.3d at 127-28.4

When a governmental employee files a plea to the jurisdiction, he invokes the immunity from suit held by the government itself. See Texas A & M Univ. Sys. v. Koseoglu, 233 S.W.3d 835, 844 (Tex.2007). The TTCA defines an “employee” for purposes of governmental immunity:

[A] person, including an officer or agent, who is in the paid service of a governmental unit by competent authority, but does not include an independent contractor, an agent or employee of an independent contractor, or a person who performs tasks the details of which the governmental unit does not have the legal right to control.

Tex. Civ. Prao. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.001(2) (West 2012).

Under the TTCA, a person is not an employee of a governmental unit if the person is an independent contractor or “performs tasks the details of which the governmental unit does not have the legal right to control.” See Murk v. Scheele, 120 S.W.3d 865, 866 (Tex.2003) (quoting Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.001(2)). The statutory definition requires both “control and paid employment to invoke the [TTCAj’s waiver of immunity.” See Adkins v. Furey, 2 S.W.3d 346, 348 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1999, no pet.) (emphasis in original).

In determining whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor, the focus is on who has the right to control the details of the work. Limestone Prods. Distrib., Inc. v. McNamara, 71 S.W.3d 308, 312 (Tex.2002) (citing Thompson v. Travelers Indem. Co., 789 S.W.2d 277, 278 (Tex.1990)); Weidner v. Sanchez, 14 S.W.3d 353, 373 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, no pet.). An independent contractor is one who, in pursuit of an independent business, undertakes specific work for another using his own means and methods without submitting to the control of the other person as to the details of the work. Indus. Indem. Exch. v. Southard, 138 Tex. 531, 160 S.W.2d 905, 907 (1942). In contrast, an “employer controls not merely the end sought to be accomplished, but also the means and details of its accomplishment.” Limestone, 71 S.W.3d at 312 (citing Thompson, 789 S.W.2d at 278).

A party can prove right to control in two ways; first, by evidence of a [369]*369contractual agreement that explicitly assigns a right to control; and second, in the absence of such contractual agreement, by evidence of actual control over the manner in which the work was performed. Dow Chem. Co. v. Bright, 89 S.W.3d 602, 606 (Tex.2002). A written contract expressly providing for an independent-contract relationship is determinative of the parties’ relationship in the absence of extrinsic evidence indicating the contract was subterfuge, the hiring party exercised actual control in a manner inconsistent with the contract, or if the written contract has been modified by a subsequent agreement. Weidner, 14 S.W.3d at 373.

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Bluebook (online)
401 S.W.3d 363, 2013 WL 1775998, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 5119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olivares-v-brown-gay-engineering-inc-texapp-2013.