COURT OF APPEALS

	SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS

	FORT WORTH

	NO. 2-05-079-CV

JAMES TROY WALL	APPELLANT

	V.

SKYLINE DRIVE MOTEL, INC. 						 APPELLEES

AND COY HART, SR.	

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	FROM THE 96TH DISTRICT COURT OF TARRANT COUNTY

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		MEMORANDUM OPINION1

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	In this premises liability case, James Troy Wall appeals the trial court’s order granting a summary judgment for Skyline Drive Motel, Inc. and Coy Hart, Sr.  We affirm.

	On July 23, 2002, James Troy Wall was a passenger in a Chevrolet Blazer operated by his friend, Stephen Roland.  Wall and Roland were traveling eastbound in the right hand lane on State Highway 199 when Nicholas Janke backed his Acura from the highway’s right-of-way in front of the Skyline Drive Motel onto the highway.  Janke’s Acura collided with Roland and Wall’s Blazer and caused the Blazer to flip and roll over.  As a result of the accident, Wall was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and has permanent nerve damage to his hands and legs.  

	Wall sued Skyline Drive Motel and Coy Hart, the secretary for the Skyline Motel Corporation, which owns the motel and adjacent property.2  Wall alleged that, as owners of property abutting the highway, appellees breached their duty to use reasonable care not to harm persons such as Wall who traveled the highway in front of the motel by failing to warn passing motorists of the danger caused by motel guests entering the highway.  Appellees filed a traditional motion for summary judgment asserting that they owed no duty to Wall and, in the alternative, that any of their acts or omissions were not the proximate cause of Wall’s injuries.  The trial court granted appellees’ motion for summary judgment without specifying the grounds for its ruling.  

	In a summary judgment case, the issue on appeal is whether the movant met the summary judgment burden by establishing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.3  The burden of proof is on the movant, and all doubts about the existence of a genuine issue of material fact are resolved against the movant.4

	The summary judgment will be affirmed only if the record establishes that the movant has conclusively proved all essential elements of the movant’s cause of action or defense as a matter of law.5  When a trial court’s order granting summary judgment does not specify the ground or grounds relied on for its ruling, summary judgment will be affirmed on appeal if any of the theories presented to the trial court and preserved for appellate review are meritorious.6 

	Wall contends that appellees breached a duty of care by failing to warn passing motorists of the danger caused by motel patrons who entered the highway from the right-of-way in front of the motel.7  He argues that this case falls within the principle set out in Alamo National Bank v. Kraus8 that an owner or occupier of property has a duty to exercise reasonable care not to jeopardize or endanger the safety of persons using adjoining property.9  Alamo, however, is inapposite to this case.

	In Alamo, the property owner hired a company to demolish a building on the property and the demolition caused a wall of the building to fall across an adjacent highway, killing a passing motorist and injuring another person.10  The supreme court held that the property owner was liable for the injuries proximately caused by the negligent demolition of the building.11   Here, however, there is no allegation that appellees performed a negligent act on the motel property that presented a danger to persons traveling on the highway in front of the motel.  Wall merely alleges that appellees were negligent in failing to warn Wall of the dangers caused by motel guests who negligently enter the highway from the adjoining right-of-way.  A person who does not own, occupy, or otherwise control real property cannot be held liable for dangerous conditions thereon.12   Therefore, appellees owed no duty of care to warn Wall of dangers caused by third parties using property in which appellees have no ownership or control.13 

	We overrule Wall’s issue and affirm the trial court’s summary judgment for appellees.14 

							JOHN CAYCE

							CHIEF JUSTICE

PANEL A:	CAYCE, C.J.; DAUPHINOT and MCCOY, JJ.

DELIVERED:  June 8, 2006