HOUSTON – A Texas appeals court has revived the negligence lawsuit of a woman against a Houston fitness club after a Harris County district court dismissed the case.
"In this appeal, we hold that a fitness club failed to meet its summary judgment burden to conclusively negate at least one essential element of the plaintiff's negligence claim relating to the club's failure to train its employees on the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), as required by the Texas Health and Safety Code," the Texas 14th Court of Appeals said in its memorandum opinion issued Aug. 16. "Thus, we reverse the trial court's summary judgment and remand for further proceedings."
Justice Ken Wise wrote the 11-page memorandum opinion in which Justice William Boyce and John Justice Donovan concurred.
The court sustained one issue presented by Ginny Boggus, who filed the case on behalf of her husband John Casey, who "suffered a cardiac event and fell to the floor" during a cycling class at Westside Tennis & Fitness, according to the background portion of the appeals court's opinion. "A club employee immediately called 911," the opinion said.
"About five minutes later, after Casey started turning blue, another club employee began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Although an AED was located nearby, no one used it. Ultimately, emergency medical services personnel arrived and defibrillated Casey. He survived but suffered brain damage and is in a vegetative state."
Boggus sued the fitness club, Texas Racquet & Spa Inc., which does business as Westside Tennis & Fitness, claiming negligence and other allegations, including failures to administer CPR within an adequate time period, use the AED, train, supervise or manage employees and comply with the state's health and safety code.
The 190th District Court in Harris County granted the Club's motion for summary judgment after the club challenged elements of duty, breach and causation in Boggus' claim and argued that Boggus could not win her case for gross negligence.
"Boggus filed a response and attached evidence, some of which the trial court determined to be inadmissible," the appeals court's opinion said. "The trial court granted the motion and signed a take-nothing judgment."
Boggus appealed, saying the trial court was wrong when it grant summary judgment.
The appeals court agreed and pointed out, in part, that once Boggus identified lack of training as a proximate cause of her husband's injuries, it became Westside Tennis & Fitness' "burden to negate the allegation," the appeals court's opinion said.
"The club did not meet this burden because it did not adduce any evidence or legal authority to show that the lack of training was not a proximate cause of Casey's injuries," the appeals court's opinion continued. "The burden to raise a fact issue did not shift to Boggus because the club did not meet its initial burden to show entitlement to a judgment as a matter of law."