HOUSTON – Citing its entitlement to Eleventh Amendment immunity, Texas A&M University is asking a federal judge to junk a false imprisonment lawsuit against it.
Recent Houston federal court records show that TAMU submitted a motion to dismiss into McLennan County resident Fayeola Jones’s suit on July 10.
Two months ago, Jones initiated legal action on claims she was racially discriminated and falsely imprisoned at an airport owned by the school.
According to the plaintiff, she was unable to secure a rental vehicle from Avis immediately after her arrival at Easterwood Airport in College Station on May 6, 2016 because of mistreatment due to her being African American.
Jones is an amputee and chemotherapy patient who needed a vehicle to driver herself to and from important medical appointments. Her complaint alleges that an Avis employee refused to consummate the transaction, but instead berated her for her race and her disability.
Court papers filed last May 4 further assert a security guard working under the jurisdiction of the university “took active measures to detain (her) without her consent.”
In its 26-page motion, TAMU counters that Jones’s false imprisonment claim is barred by Eleventh Amendment immunity.
“The state has not waived its immunity from this claim in either state or federal court,” the document states.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas Case No. 4:18-CV-1434