BEAUMONT (SE Texas Record) — Coldspring City Secretary Suzann Boudreaux is on the hook for damages and costs in what a city councilman called "a frivolous" sexual discrimination and workplace harassment recently dismissed by a state appeals court.
Coldspring Councilman Greg Vore asked the Texas Ninth District Court of Appeals to dismissed her lawsuit, "arguing that Boudreaux had filed a frivolous lawsuit," the appeals court said in its 28-page memorandum opinion delivered March 26.
The lawsuit had been intended "to silence him from notifying the city council of a potential misrepresentation that Boudreaux had made to secure a concrete and metal removal contract from the City," the memorandum opinion said.
A three-judge appeals court panel reversed a lower court's order that denied the city of Coldspring's plea to the jurisdiction and dismissed Boudreaux's lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The appeals court also reversed the lower court's order that denied Coldspring Councilman Greg Vore’s motion and also dismissed Bourdreaux's lawsuit against the councilman.
The appeals court also remanded the case back to the lower court "to assess damages and costs that are allowed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA)," the memorandum order said.
District Court Chief Justice Steve McKeithen, Justice Leanne Johnson and Justice Hollis Horton concurred in the opinion.
Boudreaux sued Coldspring, alleging that Vore engaged in sex discrimination and workplace harassment in violation of the Texas Commission of Human Rights Act, according to the background portion of the memorandum opinion.
Boudreaux also sued Vore, individually, for defamation, defamation per se, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The city and Vore both filed an interlocutory appeals after a San Jacinto County District Court Judge denied Coldspring's plea to the jurisdiction. In his appeal, Vore challenged the lower court judge's denial of his motion to dismiss under the TCPA.
The heart of the case involves what Vore claims Boudreaux said about her husband's quote in a city contract, according to the background portion of the memorandum opinion. Vore maintains that he had relied on Boudreaux’s oral representation that her husband’s quote in the concrete and metal removal contract did include concrete.
"In his motion, Vore explained that it was during the November 5 council meeting when he first learned that there was a document purporting to allow Boudreaux’s husband to refuse to remove any concrete more than three inches thick," the memorandum opinion said. "Vore further explained that when he confronted Boudreaux during the council meeting about her misrepresentation, Boudreaux denied making the statement, and at that point, Vore stated that Boudreaux lied to him."
Boudreaux's lawsuits soon followed, alleging that the city had been aware that she had been subject to a hostile work environment and seeking damages based on anxiety she suffered, missed work and medical treatment she sought.
In his motion to dismiss, Vore asked the trial court and then the appeals court to dismiss Boudreaux's "frivolous claims" and to award attorney’s fees, costs, and sanctions.
The appeals court agreed.
"We conclude that because Vore established by a preponderance of the evidence that Boudreaux's claims are based on, relate to, or are in response to his exercise of free speech, and because Boudreaux failed to establish a prima facie case for each essential element of her claims, the trial court erred by denying Vore's motion to dismiss Boudreaux’s claims under the TCPA," the memorandum opinion said.