Somervell County Healthcare Authority v. Sanders

169 S.W.3d 724, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 4846, 2005 WL 1480720
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 22, 2005
Docket10-04-00077-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 169 S.W.3d 724 (Somervell County Healthcare Authority v. Sanders) 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
Somervell County Healthcare Authority v. Sanders, 169 S.W.3d 724, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 4846, 2005 WL 1480720 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

FELIPE REYNA, Justice.

Somervell County Healthcare Authority d/b/a Glen Rose Medical Center Nursing Home (Nursing Home) appeals the trial court’s denial of its plea to the jurisdiction premised on sovereign immunity. Because the pleadings do not allege that the death in question was caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property, we will reverse and render.

Edwin H. Clayton was a resident of the Glen Rose Medical Center Nursing Home (Nursing Home), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Somervell County Healthcare Authority. While there Clayton slipped and fell on urine that had accumulated next to his toilet, and as a result fractured his hip. He was taken to the hospital and remained there after hip surgery. Two months after his fall, he developed sepsis from a decubitus ulcer 1 and died.

Joyce Sanders, acting individually and as the personal representative of Clayton’s estate, filed a wrongful death and survival action under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA) against the Nursing Home, alleging that the Nursing Home was negligent and grossly negligent because it failed to address Clayton’s high risk for falls, and it negligently prescribed and administered anticholinergic 2 medications which exacerbated Clayton’s condition. The Nursing Home filed a plea to the jurisdiction, asserting that it is a governmental unit, and as such, is entitled to sovereign immunity as to all of Sanders’s claims. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code AnN. § 101.001(3)(B) (Vernon Supp.2004). The trial court denied the Nursing Home’s plea, and the Nursing Home filed this interlocutory appeal.

Sovereign immunity has two components: immunity from liability and immunity from suit. Wichita Falls State Hosp. v. Taylor, 106 S.W.3d 692, 696 (Tex. 2003). Section 101.021 waives the State’s immunity from liability under certain cir *727 cumstances. Tex. Civ. PRác. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.021 (Vernon 1997). The TTCA also waives the State’s immunity from suit as to the extent of liability created by [the TTCA]. Tex. Civ. PRác. & Rem.Code § 101.025 (Vernon 1997). Sovereign immunity from suit defeats a trial court’s subject-matter jurisdiction because, absent the State’s consent to sue a governmental entity, a trial court has no basis for jurisdiction. Tex. Dept. of Transp. v. Jones, 8 S.W.3d 636, 637 (Tex.1999). A trial court’s subject-matter jurisdiction is a question of law and subject to de novo review. Tex. Nat Res. Conservation Com’n v. IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d 849, 855 (Tex.2002). There is no dispute that the Nursing Home is a governmental entity, and as such is entitled to sovereign immunity. See Snelling v. Mims, 97 S.W.3d 646, 653 (Tex.App.Waco 2002, no pet.). The only question is whether Sanders pled facts sufficient to waive immunity under the TTCA.

Sanders brought suit against the Nursing Home under the portion of the TTCA that waives immunity from liability for personal injury caused by “a condition or use of tangible personal or real property.” Tex. Civ. Prao. & Rem.Code § 101.021(2). Sanders bears the burden of pleading facts to establish that the condition or use of tangible personal or real property proximately caused the damages alleged. Dallas Area Rapid Transit v. Whitley, 104 S.W.3d 540, 542 (Tex.2003). We do not look at the merits of the case, rather we review the pleadings in favor of Sanders and accept the pleadings’ factual allegations as true. Davis v. Burnam, 137 S.W.3d 325, 331 (Tex.App.-Austin 2004, no pet.) (citing Texas Ass’n of Bus. v. Tex. Air Control Board, 852 S.W.2d 440, 443 (Tex.1993)). However, we are not constrained to the pleadings only. Jones, 8 S.W.3d at 639. We may also consider any evidence raised by the parties if necessary to resolve the jurisdictional issue. Tex. Dept. of Crim. Just. v. Miller, 51 S.W.3d 583, 587 (Tex.2001).

Parts of Sanders’s amended original petition alleges the following facts: the Nursing Home should have recognized that Clayton was at a high risk for falls; the Nursing Home failed to address Clayton’s fall risk; the Nursing Home exacerbated Clayton’s fall risk by administering anticholinergic medications; the Nursing Home failed to recognize, diagnose, and treat Clayton’s depression; the Nursing Home failed to provide Clayton proper medical care. The petition states that these facts proximately caused Clayton’s injury, ultimately resulting in his death.

Most of Sanders’s allegations involve the failure of the Nursing Home to act and do not involve the use of tangible personal or real property. The pleading of these “failures to act” are not sufficient to waive the Nursing Home’s sovereign immunity. Snelling, 97 S.W.3d at 654 (holding that plaintiffs petition alleging that the defendant nursing home failed to diagnosis, treat, report injuries, and supervise employees was not sufficient to waive immunity); Kerrville State Hosp. v. Clark, 923 S.W.2d 582, 584 (Tex.1996) (holding the failure to administer an injectable drug is a non-use of tangible property and does not fall under the waiver provisions of the TTCA); U. of Texas Med. Branch v. York, 871 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1994) (holding that information in medical records not tangible personal property). The only facts in the pleading that arguably involve a condition or use of property is the Nursing Home’s administration of anticholi-nergic medicine to Clayton.

Sanders argues that the prescription and administration of anticholinergic medications to Clayton was inappropriate for someone with Clayton’s condition. She relies on Quinn to support her position. *728 Quinn v. Mem’l Med. Ctr., 764 S.W.2d 915, 917 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1989, no writ). In that case, the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals held that “dispensing a drug by a hospital pharmacy is a use of tangible personal property.” Id.

However, the Nursing Home does not prescribe or dispense drugs to its residents. On the contrary, it is responsible only for distributing the drug to the resident according to the prescribing doctor’s directions.

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Bluebook (online)
169 S.W.3d 724, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 4846, 2005 WL 1480720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/somervell-county-healthcare-authority-v-sanders-texapp-2005.