HOUSTON - The First Court of Appeals recently dismissed a personal injury claim against the city of Houston.
The lawsuit was brought by Magdalena and Javier Villafuerte last year.
Court records show in March 2019 a city employee was driving an ambulance and rear-end a vehicle, resulting in a four-car pile up, one of which was a vehicle the Villafuertes were driving.
Nearly four months following the collision, the Villafuertes sent written notice of their claims for personal injury and property damage to the city. They then filed suit, claiming damages resulting from the city’s negligence.
Court records show the city moved for partial summary judgment as to the Villafuertes’ personal-injury claims on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that they had not provided the notice required under the Texas Tort Claims Act to waive the city’s governmental immunity. The trial court denied the motion and the city appealed.
On July 28, the First Court found that the city’s governmental immunity had not been waived and that the trial court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the Villafuertes’ personal-injury claims, reversing the trial court’s order denying summary judgment and rendering judgment dismissing the Villafuertes’ personal-injury claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
“The Villafuertes have not established that the City either received timely formal notice or had actual notice of their personal-injury claims, and so they did not meet their burden to establish the trial court’s jurisdiction over these claims,” the opinion states. “The trial court erred in denying the City’s motion for summary judgment challenging jurisdiction.”
Appeals case No. 01-21-00517-CV