City of Dallas v. Sanchez

Plaintiffs, the parents of Matthew Sanchez, who died from a drug overdose, filed a wrongful death suit against the City of Dallas, alleging that a condition of the City’s telephone system proximately caused their son’s death by preventing him from receiving potentially life-saving medical care. The City filed a Tex. R. Civ. P. 91a motion to dismiss asserting governmental immunity from suit and arguing that the allegations in the complaint did not invoke a waiver of governmental immunity under the Texas Tort Claims Act. The trial court denied the City’s motion to dismiss as to the allegation that the City’s 9-1-1 phone system failed or malfunctioned. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that governmental immunity was not waived under the Tort Claims Act and dismissal was required because the pleadings did not establish that a defect in the 9-1-1 telephone system was a proximate cause of Sanchez’s death. View "City of Dallas v. Sanchez" on Justia Law