University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center v. Baker

401 S.W.3d 246, 2012 WL 6014608, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 10007
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 4, 2012
DocketNo. 14-11-01037-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 401 S.W.3d 246 (University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center v. Baker) 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
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center v. Baker, 401 S.W.3d 246, 2012 WL 6014608, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 10007 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

SHARON McCALLY, Justice.

Appellees Preston Baker, Jennifer Baker, and their four children sued The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDA), The University of Texas System (UTS), and The Proton Therapy Center-Houston Ltd., L.L.P. (PTC) for claims based on personal injuries sustained by the Baker children. MDA and UTS filed a plea to the jurisdiction contending that sovereign immunity had not been waived. The trial court denied the plea, and MDA and UTS bring this interlocutory appeal. We affirm.

Background

The Bakers allege that Preston Baker was employed by MDA to use a milling machine to make bronze apertures by milling bronze plates, and in the course of using the milling machine, the machine emitted lead dust and contaminated his clothing. He wore his clothing home, where his family was also exposed to the lead dust, and his children suffered personal injuries.

MDA and UTS answered the Bakers’ original and first amended petitions with special exceptions contending that MDA was “the proper defendant, and not [UTS].” Later, MDA and UTS filed a plea to the jurisdiction asserting sovereign immunity and attaching copies of the Bakers’ first amended petition; the Bakers’ response to MDA and UTS’s earlier plea to the jurisdiction;1 and interrogatory responses from Preston and Jennifer Baker. The trial court held a hearing on the plea to the jurisdiction. The court orally denied the special exceptions but delayed ruling on the plea. The Bakers then filed a second amended petition alleging in part as follows:

PRESTON BAKER, Sr. has been employed by Defendant M.D. Anderson as a Machinist and Fabrication Technician in the Proton-Therapy Center (PTC) Machine Shop. Before Mr. Baker ever began working in the PTC Machine Shop, Defendants were aware of OSHA regulations generally, were aware of lead specific OSHA regulations, were aware that machinists such as Preston Baker, Sr. would potentially be exposed to lead in the process of making bronze apertures to shield patients from proton therapy beams, were aware of the need for monitoring to confirm exposure, were aware of the safety components required to eliminate or reduce exposures to employees, and were aware of the safety components required to eliminate exposures outside of the Machine Shop (take-home exposures).
Responsibility for compliance with OSHA regulations and Defendants’ internal programs and procedures was assigned to various employees of Defendants, such as Environmental Health & Safety (EH & S), Principle Investigators, Area Managers, the Respiratory Protection Program Administrator, the Building Manager, and the PTC Administrator. These employees had a legal duty to provide the safety components that would eliminate or reduce lead exposures in the Machine Shop and eliminate exposures outside of the Machine Shop (take-home exposures). Because the employees of Defendants failed in [251]*251their legal duty, Preston Baker, Sr. and other PTC workers were furnished tangible personal property lacking integral safety components and were required to use (misuse) tangible property, including motor driven equipment such as a milling machine, which created hazardous levels of toxic lead dust that left the Machine Shop on Mr. Baker’s contaminated clothing. The Texas Department of State Health Services investigated the Baker family’s elevated blood lead levels and found their home was not the source of exposure, that Mr. Baker’s shoes and clothing were contaminated with lead, and traced the exposure to Mr. Baker’s job for Defendants at the PTC. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ negligence, Preston Baker unknowingly wore clothing contaminated with toxic lead dust home and his children were exposed to hazardous levels of toxic lead, developed elevated blood lead levels, which caused the injuries complained of in this action.
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.... Defendants were aware [of regulations that require] the ‘employer shall assure that all protective clothing is removed at the completion of a work shift only in change rooms provided for that purpose,’ and provide specific containers for the clothing ‘which prevents dispersion of the lead outside the container.’ Despite these requirements, a February 11, 2005 shop Safety Inspection Report noted that ‘[potential lead exposure monitoring was not conducted for the staff that cuts and mills lead. EH & S staff need to coordinate with shop personnel to complete this task.’
Defendant M.D. Anderson had on paper “Shop Safety Management Program” as of February 28, 2005. The program required, among other things, “hazard analysis,” dust collection or exhaust systems in compliance with [OSHA regulations], and wearing appropriate protective equipment and attire.
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[T]he integral safety components required to prevent both PTC employee and take-home exposures was not provided. Instead, PTC workers, including Mr. Baker, were furnished tangible personal property lacking these integral safety components, and were required to use (or, in light of the lack of integral safety component, misuse) tangible personal property, including motor driven equipment such as a milling machine .... Toxic lead dust was generated when Mr. Baker and other Machine Shop workers used the tangible personal property provided by Defendants as intended and as they were instructed.
.... Employees were not using (not provided) appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). There was no storage area for PPE and no ante-room ‘where contaminated clothing can be discarded before leaving the work area.’
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PRESTON BAKER and JENNIFER BAKER do not in this action seek to recover for lead induced personal injuries to themselves. Their claims in this action arise out of and are related to the lead induced personal injuries of their children.

The trial court denied the plea to the jurisdiction, and MDA and UTS timely filed a notice of appeal from the interlocutory order. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(8) (West Supp.2012).

Standard of Review

If a governmental unit has immunity from suit, the trial court lacks subject matter jurisdiction. Rusk State Hosp. v. Black, 392 S.W.3d 88, 102 (Tex.2012). Whether a court has subject matter juris[252]*252diction is a question of law we review de novo. Tex. Dep’t of Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 226, 228 (Tex.2004). “When a plea to the jurisdiction challenges the pleadings, we determine if the pleader has alleged facts that affirmatively demonstrate the court’s jurisdiction to hear the cause.” Id. at 226. “We construe the pleadings liberally in favor of the plaintiffs and look to the pleaders’ intent.” Id.2

Analysis

MDA and UTS contend that the trial court erred by denying the plea to the jurisdiction because the pleadings and evidence fail to establish a waiver of governmental immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA). See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 101.001-101.109 (West 2011 & Supp.2012). A governmental unit is immune from suit unless the TTCA expressly waives immunity. Miranda,

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Bluebook (online)
401 S.W.3d 246, 2012 WL 6014608, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 10007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/university-of-texas-md-anderson-cancer-center-v-baker-texapp-2012.