The Houston [14th] Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court determination that a personal injury claimant in a Texas Tort Claims Act lawsuit against the operator of Jones Hall in Houston met the evidentiary standard for waiving governmental immunity.
Houston First Corporation v. Jess Valma (No. 01-24-00678-CV; April 1, 2025) arose from injuries allegedly sustained by a stagehand working at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston. Plaintiff sued Houston First Corporation, a municipal entity that operates Jones Hall, which filed a plea to the jurisdiction based on governmental immunity. The trial court denied the plea. Houston First sought interlocutory relief.
In an opinion by Justice Rivas-Molloy, the court of appeals reversed. Plaintiff alleged that Houston First had actual notice of its claim, thus waiving governmental immunity. Houston First responded that although it had knowledge of the incident and investigated it, Plaintiff did not provide formal actual notice of his claims, which is required by the Texas Tort Claims Act. In order to prove actual notice, Plaintiff must establish that Houston First had knowledge of (1) a death, injury, or property damage, (2) the governmental unit’s alleged fault producing or contributing to the death, injury, or property damage, and (3) the identify of the parties involved. In this case, Houston First knew about the injury on the day it occurred, but the investigation, conducted by Houston First and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, failed to connect Houston First’s conduct to Plaintiff’s injury and neither identified an unreasonable hazard or condition. Even if Houston First had received a copy of the IATSE or OSHA reports within the six-month statutory deadline, without some assignment of responsibility Houston First could not know anything about the specific nature of Plaintiff’s claim.
TCJL Research Intern Dilara Muslu assisted in the research for and writing of this article.
