Court Opinion

ID: 9612410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:08:19.859843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:21.029730
License: Public Domain

Amos L. MAZZANT, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the City is not immune from appellees’ claims based on the City’s alleged use of the escaped gorilla. I join the majority opinion in all other respects.
The Texas Tort Claims Act is a limited waiver of the City’s governmental immuni*113ty. It provides that a city or other governmental unit is hable for “personal injury and death so caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property if the governmental unit would, were it a private person, be liable to the claimant according to Texas law.” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 101.021(2) (Vernon 2005). The question presented is whether appel-lees have alleged or can allege that their injuries were caused by the City’s “use” of the gorilla. The supreme court has defined “use” in this context to mean “to put or bring into action or service; to employ for or apply to a given purpose.” San Antonio State Hosp. v. Cowan, 128 S.W.3d 244, 246 (Tex.2004) (internal quotations and footnote omitted). Simply making personal property available for others to use is not sufficient, nor is the “use” requirement satisfied by the mere involvement of personal property in an accident. Id. at 246 & n. 12. The “use” must proximately cause the injury. Tex. Dep’t of Criminal Justice v. Hawkins, 169 S.W.3d 529, 534 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2005, no pet.).
The fact that the tangible personal property in question happens to be a live animal does not change the meaning of “use” set forth in Cowan. For a governmental unit to “use” an animal, it must employ the animal to accomplish a task or to serve a purpose. In this case, the majority holds that the City “used” the gorilla by exhibiting it to the public and that there is a sufficiently close causal nexus between this use and appellees’ injuries to trigger the waiver of immunity. I cannot agree. Even assuming that the City was “using” the gorilla while exhibiting it in its enclosure and was not merely making the gorilla available for others to use, that use ceased once the gorilla escaped from its enclosure. Once the gorilla escaped, the City’s display of the gorilla became too attenuated from the appellees’ injuries to support the conclusion that the City’s use of the gorilla caused those injuries. See id. at 533 (government did not “use” firearms that inmates stole during prison escape and later used to kill a third person). I note, however, that this interpretation of “use” does not wholly eliminate the possibility of viable tort claims based on animal attacks, as the surviving premises-liability claims in this case illustrate.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s affirmance of the trial court’s denial of the City’s plea to the jurisdiction as it relates to appellees’ claims that the City is liable for “use” of the gorilla, whether under a theory of negligence, strict liability, or otherwise. I join in the remainder of the majority’s opinion and judgment.