HOUSTON - The First Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling denying the city of Houston immunity from a lawsuit alleging an officer rear-ended a vehicle stopped at a red light.
The lawsuit was brought by Jesus Sanchez, who was stopped at a red light when an Houston Police Department officer struck him from behind in a police car.
At the time of the collision, the police car’s emergency lights were activated, but its siren was not, according to the First Court’s opinion.
In his second amended petition, Sanchez alleged that the officer failed to pay attention that the vehicles in front of him and around him were at a complete stop for a red light.
Court records show the city filed a Rule 91a motion to dismiss, arguing that Sanchez’s claims had no basis in law because he failed to plead facts both sufficient to establish a waiver of governmental immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA) and to negate the emergency and 9-1-1 exceptions to the TTCA.
The trial court denied the motion and the city appealed.
In its June 12 ruling, the First Court of Appeals found that Sanchez’s pleadings were not too conclusory, affirming the trial court’s ruling and remanding the case for further proceedings.
“Construing the pleadings liberally in favor of Sanchez and accepting his factual allegations as true, as we must, we determine that Sanchez’s pleadings are not too conclusory and sufficiently negated the application of the emergency and 9-1-1 exceptions,” the opinion states.
“We therefore conclude that the trial court did not err in denying the City’s Rule 91 motion to dismiss.”
City Attorney Arturo Michel represents the city. Attorneys Ashley Smith and Scott Brann represent Sanchez.
First Court of Appeals case No. 01-24-00440-CV
