the City of Austin v. Jennifer Frame, Individually, and as Personal Representative of the Estate of John William Griffith Greg Griffith Cheryl Burris And Diana Pulido

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 26, 2015·No. 03-15-00292-CV·Published

Opinion

ACCEPTED 03-15-00292-CV 6671739 THIRD COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 8/26/2015 9:51:30 PM JEFFREY D. KYLE CLERK No. 03-15-00292-CV

FILED IN 3rd COURT OF APPEALS IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE AUSTIN, TEXAS THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF TEXAS 8/26/2015 9:51:30 PM AT AUSTIN, TEXAS JEFFREY D. KYLE Clerk

CITY OF AUSTIN, Defendant – Appellant,

V.

JENNIFER FRAME, ET AL., Plaintiffs – Appellees.

APPELLEES’ BRIEF

Appeal from the 98th Judicial District Court of Travis County, Texas Cause No. D-1-GN-14-004391

Sean E. Breen Mike Davis State Bar No. 00783715 State Bar No. 05549500 sbreen@howrybreen.com mdavis@slackdavis.com HOWRY BREEN & HERMAN, LLP SLACK & DAVIS, L.L.P. 1900 Pearl Street 2705 Bee Caves Road, Suite 220 Austin, Texas 78705-5408 Austin, Texas 78746 Tel. (512) 474-7300 Tel. (512) 795-8686 Fax (512) 474-8557 Fax (512) 795-8787

Attorney for Appellees Jennifer Frame, Attorney for Appellee Diana Pulido Greg Griffith, and Cheryl Burris TABLE OF CONTENTS Index of Authorities ................................................................................................. iii Statement of the Case.................................................................................................1 Statement Regarding Oral Argument ........................................................................2 Issue Presented...........................................................................................................3 Statement of Facts......................................................................................................4 I. Colonel Griffith was killed and Ms. Pulido was injured while they were using the City-owned and operated Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail.........................................................................4 II. Because there were many previous incidents at the same location on the trail, the City had identified it as a safety hazard. ...................................................................................................4 III. The City’s auditor concluded the City’s delay in addressing the identified safety hazard on the Hike & Bike Trail was contrary to the City’s policy..................................................................6 Summary of Argument ..............................................................................................8 Arguments and Authorities ........................................................................................9 I. Legal standards......................................................................................9 II. Appellees met their burden to allege facts establishing the trial court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. ..............................................10 A. The factual allegations in Appellees’ first amended petition clearly fall within policy-implementation waiver of governmental immunity............................................10 B. The City’s attempt to plead ignorance of the policies at issue is disingenuous.............................................................11 III. The trial court’s denial of the City’s plea to the jurisdiction was correct because the City failed to affirmatively and conclusively negate Appellees’ basis for jurisdiction.........................16 A. An entity’s governmental immunity is waived for harm caused by the failure of policy implementation. .............16 B. The City itself concluded there was a failure of policy implementation..........................................................................18 C. The conclusion reached by the City is consistent with

-i- the findings of other Texas appellate courts. ............................20 D. The City’s attempt to characterize its failure to eliminate or control a safety hazard as a discretionary policy-formulation decision misunderstands Texas law. ............................................................................................22 E. The City’s insistence that this is a case about roadway design does not make it so, and therefore the City may not raise the defense of governmental immunity......................24 IV. The trial court’s decision was also correct because, at a minimum, fact issues exist as to whether the City made a policy-formulation decision and simply failed to implement it...........................................................................................................25 Prayer .......................................................................................................................27 Certificate of Compliance ........................................................................................29 Certificate of Service ...............................................................................................30

- ii - INDEX OF AUTHORITIES Bellnoa v. City of Austin, 894 S.W.2d 821 (Tex. App.—Austin 1995, writ denied) ..........................................................................................................15

Bennett v. Tarrant Cnty. Water Ctrl. Dist. No. 1, 894 S.W.2d 441 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1995, writ denied)........................................................23

City of Austin v. Rangel, 184 S.W.3d 377 (Tex. App.—Austin 2006, no pet.) ...................................................................................................................9

City of Granite Shoals v. Winder, 280 S.W.3d 550 (Tex. App.— Austin 2009, pet. denied).......................................................................... 9, 16, 26

City of Midland v. Sullivan, 33 S.W.3d 1 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2000, pet. dism’d) ............................................................................................. 10, 20, 21

City of Paris v. Floyd, 150 S.W.3d 224 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2004, no pet.) ...................................................................................................................9

Fountain v. Burklund, No. 03-01-00380-CV, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 8252 (Tex. App.—Austin Dec. 13, 2001, pet. denied)........................................13

K-Mart Corp. v. Honeycutt, 24 S.W.3d 357 (Tex. 2000) ........................................27

San Patricio Mun. Water Dist. v. City of Corpus Christi, No. 13-10- 00272-CV, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 262 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi Jan. 13, 2011, pet. denied) .......................................................................27

State Dep’t of Highways & Pub. Transp. v. King, 808 S.W.2d 465 (Tex. 1991)...........................................................................................................15

State v. Lueck, 290 S.W.3d 876 (Tex. 2009) .......................................................9, 11

Stephen F. Austin State Univ. v. Flynn, 228 S.W.3d 653 (Tex. 2007) ............ passim

Tex. Ass’n of Bus. v. Tex. Air Control Bd., 852 S.W.2d 440 (Tex.

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