FORT WORTH - The Second Court of Appeals recently affirmed a ruling denying the city of Gainesville’s plea to the jurisdiction in a premises defect lawsuit.
Court records show the lawsuit was brought by Suzanne Sharp, who sued the city for injuries she sustained on the Gainesville airport tarmac.
According to the Second Court’s Oct. 20 opinion, on May 17, 2020, Sharp and her instructor pilot landed their plane at the Gainesville airport to purchase fuel for the plane. Sharp deplaned onto the tarmac with a dog and began walking toward a grassy area. As she was walking the dog, Sharp tripped on an unmarked tie-down protruding from a depression in the ground, which caused her to “fall violently face-first on the pavement.”
Court records show Gainesville filed a plea to the jurisdiction, which the trial court denied.
On appeal, Gainsesville argued that Sharp did not pay for the use of the city’s premises and therefore was a licensee at the time of her accident, that the condition of the premises was not unreasonably dangerous, and that the city did not have actual or constructive knowledge of an unreasonably dangerous condition, the opinion states.
“Because Sharp presented sufficient evidence to show there is a disputed material fact regarding whether the condition was unreasonably dangerous, the trial court properly denied the City’s plea to the jurisdiction on Sharp’s premises defect claim,” the opinion states. “Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s ruling.”
Case No. 02-22-00061-CV