HOUSTON - A taxi driver injured during an airport fire in Houston shouldn't be able to the City, a state appeals court has ruled.
The Fourteenth Court of Appeals on Feb. 20 reversed a Harris Court decision that allowed Kebret Moamed's negligence claims to move forward. He claims he was injured when he jumped over a railing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in 2017.
Mohamed said the City failed to provide a safe means to exit the bathroom he was in during a fire, failed to safely design buildings and walkways and failed to develop policies to protect taxi drivers and dispatchers from fires.
But he failed to show Houston wasn't entitled to immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act, Justice Kevin Jewell wrote.
"All of these allegations implicate the discretionary function exception or the police or fire exception," Jewell wrote.
"Design decisions, such as providing means of ingress or egress to restrooms or the material from which a walkway is constructed, and decisions about safety features are discretionary functions for which a governmental entity may not be sued."
The fire occurred in the taxi drivers' lounge area at IAH on Aug. 24, 2017. Taxis can park in the area while their drivers can visit restrooms or a lunchroom. Mohamed was in the restroom when the fire broke out.
He encountered flames on a deck separating restrooms from the lunchroom and was forced to jump over a nearby deck. He said he was injured when he landed.
His lawsuit claimed building a wooden walkway with only one way in or out with no flame-retardant measures was grossly negligent. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, he needed to defeat the City's immunity defense.
The City argued in a motion to dismiss it couldn't be sued for its discretionary acts or its methods of providing fire protection. Firefighters first said a battery charger was the possible cause but eventually couldn't make a clear determination.
Houston blamed the fire on either a discarded cigarette or arson and said it caused $200,000 in damage. A spot next to restroom was determined to be the origin of the fire.
The 14th Court cited previously dismissed cases over decisions about safety features. One such lawsuit blamed the Texas Department of Transportation after a woman broke her ankle by stepping into a storm sewer drain.
Another against TxDOT concerned the slope of a median on a highway.
"(T)he development of policies and procedures for the protection and safety of taxi drivers necessarily involves the exercise of the City's discretion; Mohamed has identified no law that required municipalities to develop such policies or procedures, nor has he identified any such extant policies or procedures that the City negligently implemented," Jewell wrote.