AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - A man who won a jury verdict for $216,000 in damages after being hit by a bus operated by a county social-services center will have to settle for $100,000 after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that state law limits the power of courts to award any more.
Daniel Curry was crossing the street when he was hit by a bus operated by the Gulf Coast Center, which provides services for the disabled in Galveston and Brazoria Counties. The two parties agreed Gulf Coast Center is a “governmental unit” under the Texas Tort Claims Act, which limits the liability of political subdivisions of the state.
The jury awarded Curry $216,000 and he sought a judgment for the full amount plus interest and costs, which he argued fell beneath a $250,000 cap under the Tort Claims Act. Gulf Coast responded that the law provided for a $100,000 cap for governmental units. The trial court disagreed, as did the First District Court of Appeals in Houston.
The Texas Supreme Court reversed the judgment in a Dec. 30 decision, however. The Tort Claims Act modifies the government’s immunity to suit by giving courts jurisdiction to hear liability lawsuits against municipalities and governmental units, the court explained. But the law is “a unique statutory scheme” in which the government retains immunity from judgments over the amounts the state legislature specified.
Curry argued, and the lower courts agreed, that a jury had to decide the question of whether the $100,000 damages cap applied in his case. But the Texas Supreme Court said this was a question of law and the trial court lacked jurisdiction to award a higher amount.