A recent case decided by the Texas Supreme Court highlights some of the complexities of suing a government agency for personal injury.
The case involves a Houston man who says he was injured when he was struck by a golf cart driven by a city official. The injured man says he was attending a parade at Booker T. Washington High School in 2018, when a golf court ran over his leg. The cart, he claims, was driven by a member of the Houston City Council. The former city council members said it was actually the city’s fire chief who was behind the wheel of the golf cart.
The injured man sued the city two years later, seeking compensation for $200,000 in medical bills related to the accident. After he won his case, the city appealed to Texas’ highest court. The city argued that the officials were not acting in their official capacities at the time of the accident and that, therefore, the city should not be held responsible. The Supreme Court disagreed and sent the case back to a jury. Recently, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the injured man, ordering that the city pay him $500,000.
Sovereign immunity
A very old legal principle known as sovereign immunity protects government agencies from certain types of lawsuits, including many personal injury lawsuits. The issue comes up often in premises liability cases, such as when a person is injured by an unsafe condition on government-owned land. It can also come up in motor vehicle accident cases involving a government-owned vehicle.
Sovereign immunity doesn’t make it impossible for the injured to prevail in these suits, but does impose special conditions and procedures, and can limit the awards the plaintiff can collect if they win.
