Texas Department of Transportation v. Andrews

155 S.W.3d 351, 2004 WL 2109030
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 6, 2005
Docket2-03-286-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 155 S.W.3d 351 (Texas Department of Transportation v. Andrews) 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
Texas Department of Transportation v. Andrews, 155 S.W.3d 351, 2004 WL 2109030 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

OPINION

TERRIE LIVINGSTON, Justice.

Introduction

Appellant, the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT), appeals from the trial court’s order denying its plea to the jurisdiction. See Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem. Code Ann. §§ 51.014(a)(8), 101.001(3)(A) (Vernon Supp.2004-05). TXDOT contends that it is entitled to sovereign immunity from suit arising from a car accident on Highway 360. Appellees claim that the accident resulted from TXDOT’s failure to place warning signs and properly maintain traffic control devices in the area of the accident. Because we conclude that appel-lees did not raise a fact question as to whether TXDOT’s immunity from suit has been waived, we vacate the trial court’s order denying TXDOT’s plea to the juris[355]*355diction and dismiss the claims against TXDOT.

Background Facts

On October 30, 1999, appellee Mary G. Andrews and her husband, Charley Julius Andrews, were driving on Highway 360 when Mary drove onto a paved area (the “extension”) that ended in a fifteen-foot drop-off. Their car went off the embankment, and Charley, the passenger, was injured in the resulting crash and later died.

Mary and the couple’s children, Mary Elizabeth Andrews Crockett, Kathryn Andrews Anderton, and Charley J. Andrews, III — individually and as representatives of the Estate of Charley Julius Andrews— sued TXDOT ' for negligence.1 Their claims fall into three general categories: (1) negligent design of the roadway and adjacent extension; (2) negligent failure to install and maintain appropriate traffic control devices before and around the extension to warn the public of the potential danger of the embankment; and (3) negligent failure to properly inspect and maintain the existing traffic control devices in the area after notice that they were inadequate. Appellees alleged specifically that the embankment is a special defect, and in the alternative, that it is a premise defect. TXDOT filed a plea to the jurisdiction alleging that it is entitled to sovereign immunity from suit, which the trial court denied. TXDOT filed this interlocutory appeal.

Standard of Review

Sovereign immunity defeats a trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction; thus, it is properly asserted in a plea to the jurisdiction. Tex. Dep’t of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 225-26 (Tex.2004). When a plea to the jurisdiction challenges the pleadings, we determine if the pleader has alleged facts affirmatively demonstrating that the trial court has jurisdiction over the case. Id. at 226. We construe the pleadings liberally in favor of the plaintiffs and look to the pleader’s intent. Id.

“[I]f a plea to the jurisdiction challenges the existence of jurisdictional facts, we consider relevant evidence submitted by the parties when necessary to resolve the jurisdictional issues raised.” Id. at 227; Bland ISD v. Blue, 34 S.W.3d 547, 555 (Tex.2000). If the evidence creates a fact question regarding jurisdiction, the trial court must deny the plea to the jurisdiction and leave its resolution to the fact finder. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d at 227-28. But “if the relevant evidence is undisputed or fails to raise a fact question on the jurisdictional issue, the trial court rules on the plea to the jurisdiction as a matter of law.” Id. at 228. In other words, “after the state asserts and supports with evidence that the trial court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, we simply require the plaintiffs, when the facts underlying the merits and subject matter jurisdiction are intertwined, to show that there is a disputed material fact regarding the jurisdictional issue.” Id.

We review the trial court’s ruling on a plea to the jurisdiction de novo. Tex. Natural Res. Conservation Comm’n v. IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d 849, 855 (Tex.2002). “When reviewing a plea to the jurisdiction in which the pleading requirement has been met and evidence has been submitted to support the plea that implicates the merits of the case, we take as true all evidence favorable to the nonmovant,” indulging every reasonable inference and re[356]*356solving any doubts in the nonmovant’s favor. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d at 228.

Here, TXDOT challenged both appel-lees’ pleadings and the existence of jurisdictional facts. Thus, we must examine the evidence submitted by the parties to determine if appellees raised a fact question regarding jurisdiction. See id.

Analysis

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the State and its agencies are generally immune from suit unless the State gives its consent to be sued. Sipes v. City of Grapevine, 146 S.W.3d 273, 278 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2004, no pet. h.); Fed. Sign v. Tex. S. Univ., 951 S.W.2d 401, 405 (Tex.1997). The State, a governmental unit, is immune from both suit and liability for appellants’ injuries unless its immunity is waived by the terms of the Texas Tort Claims Act. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 101.021, 101.025 (Vernon 1997).

In their second amended petition, appel-lees claimed that the portion of Highway 360 where the accident occurred abruptly ends in a fifteen-foot embankment or drop-off. They claim that there were no “signs, barricades, or other markers” warning Mary or other motorists of this road condition. They further claim that the area was part of a “staged construction project” and that TXDOT breached a nondiscretionary duty to place and maintain traffic control devices in the area warning of the condition. Finally, appellees claim that TXDOT was negligent in fading to properly inspect the area and in failing to correct the absence or condition of traffic control devices in the area within a reasonable time after notice of the absence or condition of the devices. Thus, appellees’ claims fall into two broad categories: (1) that the condition of the area where the fifteen-foot drop-off is located constitutes a special defect; and (2) in the alternative, the area is a premise defect for which TXDOT had a nondiscretionary duty to provide and maintain adequate warnings and traffic control devices. TXDOT challenged both categories of claims in its plea to the jurisdiction.

Special Defect

The Tort Claims Act waives a governmental unit’s immunity from suit and liability for violation of the duty to warn of special defects. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.060(c); State v. Wollesen, 93 S.W.3d 910, 913 (Tex.App.-Austin 2002, no pet.). A special defect is a condition of the same kind or class as “excavations or obstructions on highways, roads, or streets” that unexpectedly and physically impair a vehicle’s ability to travel on the roadway, thus presenting an unusual and unexpected danger to users of roadways. Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.022(b); State v. Rodriguez, 985 S.W.2d 83, 85 (Tex.1999); Harris County v. Estate of Ciccia,

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Bluebook (online)
155 S.W.3d 351, 2004 WL 2109030, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-department-of-transportation-v-andrews-texapp-2005.