Court Opinion

ID: 9656612
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:52:21.317782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:33.682548
License: Public Domain

SANDEE BRYAN MARION, Justice,
concurring.
I withdraw my opinion of June 25, 2003 and substitute this opinion in its place. Because the majority holds that the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Salcedo v. El Paso Hospital District, 659 S.W.2d 30 (Tex.1983) is no longer controlling case law, I disagree and write separately. We are bound to follow Salcedo unless the Texas Supreme Court overrules it. Although having had ample opportunity to do so, the Supreme Court has not overruled its holding in Salcedo. See University of Texas Med. Branch at Galveston v. York, 871 S.W.2d 175, 178 (Tex.1994); Dallas County Mental Health v. Bossley, 968 S.W.2d 339, 342 (Tex.1998); see also Texas Dep’t of Criminal Justice v. Miller, 51 S.W.3d 583, 595 (Tex.2001) (Enoch, J., dissenting). With the exception that the alleged actions in Salcedo occurred in a hospital setting rather than in a setting involving EMTs, the facts in Salcedo are virtually the same facts as in this case. Therefore, I would apply Salcedo’s holding here and hold that the EMTs’ use of the EKG machine was the use of tangible personal property and, therefore, immunity is waived. See Salcedo, 659 S.W.2d at *1033. However, since the Salcedo decision, the Legislature enacted several exceptions to the waiver of immunity, one of which applies to EMTs. Specifically, the City argued at the hearing on its motion to dismiss that Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 101.062 applied as an exception to any waiver of immunity under section 101.021. Because I believe the City retains immunity under section 101.062,1 concur in the judgment.
Section 101.062 provides that “[t]his chapter applies to a claim against a public agency that arises from an action of an employee of the public agency ... and that involves providing 9-1-1 service or responding to a 9-1-1 emergency call only if the action violates a statute or ordinance applicable to the action.” Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.062(b) (Vernon 1997) (emphasis added). Thus, the City’s immunity is not waived when providing 9-1-1 services unless the EMTs violate an applicable statute or ordinance. Fernandez v. City of El Paso, 876 S.W.2d 370, 376 (Tex. App. — El Paso 1993, writ denied). Here, there is no dispute that the EMTs were responding to an emergency call. Accordingly, the question is whether the Andersons sufficiently pleaded that the EMTs violated a statute or ordinance while responding to the Andersons’ emergency. The Andersons contend the EMTs violated Texas Occupations Code sections 157.001 and 157.003, the City’s Standard Operating Procedure for EMS Units, San Antonio Ordinance 43411, and City of San Antonio Resolutions 73-57-69 and 73-30-33. However, the Andersons have not produced or pled any evidence that an applicable statute or ordinance was violated by the City. Therefore, I would hold that their claims are barred by section 101.062 and affirm the trial court’s judgment on that basis. See The County of Zapata v. Lopez, 61 S.W.3d 581, 584 (Tex. App. — San Antonio 2001, no pet.); Guillen v. City of San Antonio, 13 S.W.3d 428, 433-34 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 2000, pet. denied); Fernandez, 876 S.W.2d at 376.