In the
Court of Appeals
Second Appellate District of Texas
at Fort Worth
___________________________
No. 02-19-00159-CV
___________________________
TARRANT COUNTY, TEXAS, Appellant
V.
TONY LEE GREEN, Appellee
On Appeal from the 141st District Court
Tarrant County, Texas
Trial Court No. 141-294259-17
Before Sudderth, C.J.; Bassel and Wallach, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Sudderth
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellee Tony Lee Green sued Appellant Tarrant County, Texas, alleging in his
original petition that while he was in the Tarrant County Jail, Corporal James Davis, a
sheriff’s department employee, pointed a laser temperature gun directly at Green’s left
eye.1 Green alleged that Corporal Davis had been acting in the course and scope of
his county employment when he “negligent[ly] use[d]” the laser temperature gun and
referenced the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA). See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code
Ann. §§ 101.001(2), .002, .021. Green specifically “denie[d] and disavow[ed] any claim
or allegation that the damages [he] suffered . . . [were] the result of any intentional
tort.” See id. § 101.057(2) (stating that the TTCA does not apply to a claim “arising
out of assault, battery, false imprisonment, or any other intentional tort”).
Tarrant County filed a plea to the jurisdiction in which it argued that the trial
court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because—among other things—Green had
pleaded an intentional tort and it is immune from suit for intentional torts. See id. To
its plea, Tarrant County attached a portion of Green’s deposition in which, when
asked whether he believed that Corporal Davis had accidentally used the laser on his
eye, Green replied,
I don’t think so. Again, I don’t think that he intended to do me harm,
but I believe that he intended to shine it at me. It was a little bit too
1
Green alleged that when he saw Corporal Davis with the laser temperature
gun, he jokingly said, “He’s got a [T]aser, please don’t [T]ase me!”
2
direct and he was just way too close for it to have been an absolute
accident.
....
So I don’t -- I -- to answer your question just dead on, no, I don’t
think it was an accident. I believe the injury was an accident. I don’t
think he intended to do it, like, to harm me.
Green responded that Tarrant County’s interpretation of the intentional-tort
exception would “effectively eviscerate the Legislature’s express waiver of sovereign
immunity for the negligent use or misuse of tangible personal property” and was
unjust and unreasonable outside the context of an arrest. Green asserted that
although Corporal Davis’s decision to point the laser at Green—a person not under
arrest and already in custody—was intentional, a rational jury could conclude that his
decision to point it at Green’s eye was negligent. Green attached Corporal Davis’s
deposition to his response. In the deposition, Corporal Davis denied any interaction
with Green that involved pointing the laser at him, but he admitted he could have
pointed it in Green’s direction.
At the hearing on Tarrant County’s plea, Green argued that there was no
implicit battery because no intentional contact was made and that the officer did not
intend to hurt him because he did not understand that the laser was hazardous.2
2
The trial judge indicated that he understood Green’s argument, stating, “I
intend to drive my car to work, and I may be negligent while I’m intending to drive
here.”
3
Green acknowledged that he had not brought a failure-to-train claim.3 The trial court
denied Tarrant County’s plea.
In a single issue, Tarrant County brings this interlocutory appeal, arguing that
the trial court erred as a matter of law by denying its plea to the jurisdiction because
Corporal Davis committed an intentional tort and because Green did not allege a
claim involving a condition or use of the county’s tangible personal property. See id.
§ 51.014(a)(8). Green responds that to commit either an assault or a battery,4 there
must be an intentional act accompanied by an intent to create a harmful or offensive
3
Corporal Davis stated in his deposition that he had never seen the temperature
device’s instruction manual and that his training to use the device had been by
“[w]ord of mouth.” When shown the manual, he acknowledged that it contained a
warning that said, “Laser light, do not stare into the beam,” but he said that he had
been taught that the device was not dangerous and that, when he asked the medical
staff if the device could damage someone’s eye, he was told no. He asked the medical
staff about it when he took Green to see the jail’s medical staff after Green
complained about his eye.
4
Under the Penal Code, a person can commit an assault (1) by intentionally,
knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to another; (2) by intentionally or
knowingly threatening another with imminent bodily injury; or (3) by intentionally or
knowingly causing physical contact with another when he “knows or should
reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.”
Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.01(a); see City of Fort Worth v. Chattha, No. 02-11-00342-
CV, 2012 WL 503223, at *5–6 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Feb. 16, 2012, no pet.) (mem.
op.) (stating that the court looks to the Penal Code for the elements of civil causes of
action such as assault). In City of Watauga v. Gordon, the supreme court explained that
Penal Code Section 22.01’s first and third definitions correspond to separate forms of
common law battery while the second definition mirrors the traditional notion of
common law assault. 434 S.W.3d 586, 590 (Tex. 2014).
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contact and admits that while there was an intentional act, Corporal Davis had no
intent to commit a harmful or offensive contact.
A plea to the jurisdiction challenges the trial court’s authority to determine an
action’s subject matter. City of Westworth Vill. v. City of White Settlement, 558 S.W.3d
232, 239 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2018, pet. denied). Whether a trial court has
subject matter jurisdiction, whether a plaintiff has alleged facts that affirmatively
demonstrate that subject matter jurisdiction, and whether undisputed evidence of
jurisdictional facts establishes subject matter jurisdiction are questions of law that we
review de novo. Tex. Dep’t of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 226 (Tex.
2004); see also Tex. Nat. Res. Conservation Comm’n v. IT-Davy, 74 S.W.3d 849, 855 (Tex.
2002).
When a plea to the jurisdiction challenges the pleadings, we determine if the
pleader has alleged facts that affirmatively demonstrate the court’s jurisdiction to hear
the cause, construing the pleadings liberally in the plaintiff’s favor and looking to the
pleader’s intent. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d at 226. If the pleadings do not contain
sufficient facts to affirmatively demonstrate the trial court’s jurisdiction but do not
affirmatively demonstrate incurable defects in jurisdiction, the issue is one of pleading
sufficiency, and the plaintiff should be afforded the opportunity to amend. Id. at 226–
27.
If, however, a plea to the jurisdiction challenges the existence of jurisdictional
facts, we consider relevant evidence submitted by the parties when necessary to
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resolve the jurisdictional issues raised, taking as true all evidence favorable to the
nonmovant, indulging every reasonable inference, and resolving any doubts in the
nonmovant’s favor. Id. at 227–28. The burden is on the governmental unit as the
movant to meet the standard of proof. Id. at 228 (“By requiring the state to meet the
summary judgment standard of proof . . ., we protect the plaintiffs from having to
‘put on their case simply to establish jurisdiction.’”). If the evidence creates a fact
question regarding the jurisdictional issue, then the trial court cannot grant the plea to
the jurisdiction, and the fact issue will be resolved by the factfinder. Id. at 227–28.
However, if the relevant evidence is undisputed or fails to raise a fact question on the
jurisdictional issue, the trial court rules on the plea to the jurisdiction as a matter of
law. Id. at 228.
The State and its political subdivisions are generally immune from suit and
liability absent a constitutional or statutory waiver of their immunity. See Univ. of Tex.
M.D. Anderson Cancer Ctr. v. McKenzie, 578 S.W.3d 506, 512 (Tex. 2019) (“The [TTCA]
waives the state’s immunity for certain negligent acts by governmental employees.”);
Gordon, 434 S.W.3d at 589 (“Governmental immunity[] generally protects
municipalities and other state subdivisions from suit unless the immunity has been
waived by the constitution or state law.”); Univ. of Tex. Med. Branch v. York, 871 S.W.2d
175, 177 (Tex. 1994) (“Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, the State is not
liable for the negligence of its employees absent constitutional or statutory provision
for liability.”).
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Section 101.021 of the TTCA, “Governmental Liability,” expressly waives a
governmental unit’s immunity from suit for personal injury
proximately caused by the wrongful act or omission or the negligence of
an employee acting within his scope of employment if:
(A) the . . . personal injury . . . arises from the operation or use of a
motor-driven vehicle or motor-driven equipment; and
(B) the employee would be personally liable to the claimant according to
Texas law; and
. . . personal injury . . . so caused by a condition or use of tangible
personal . . . 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. The TTCA’s limited immunity waiver
does not apply to intentional tort claims, i.e., claims that arise “out of assault, battery,
false imprisonment, or any other intentional tort.” Id. § 101.057; Gordon, 434 S.W.3d
at 589. And a plaintiff may not expand the TTCA’s limited waiver through artful
pleading. McKenzie, 578 S.W.3d at 513.
Tarrant County refers us to Gordon in support of its argument that Green’s
claim reflects an intentional tort that falls outside of the TTCA’s limited immunity
waiver. In Gordon, the court considered handcuff-related injuries suffered by a drunk-
driving suspect and determined that, although the injuries had been accidentally
caused, and although the complainant alleged that the officers’ use of handcuffs had
been negligent and that they had not intended to injure him, the cause of action was
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for an intentional tort (battery) rather than negligence; thus, the TTCA’s limited
waiver did not apply. 434 S.W.3d at 587–89, 591–92.
Gordon had argued that because the injury was accidental, it had to have been
the result of negligence. Id. at 592. But the court reasoned that although the specific
intent to inflict injury is unquestionably part of some intentional torts, a specific intent
to injure is not an essential element of a battery, which does not require physical injury
and which can involve a harmful or offensive contact intended to help or please the
plaintiff, and it noted that accidental injuries can sometimes result from an intentional
tort. Id. at 592–93 & n.7. The court held that in cases alleging a battery, that the
defendant intends offensive contact is enough. Id. at 593. The court concluded that
because the gravamen of Gordon’s complaint was that the police had used excessive
force in arresting him, that claim—in the context of a lawful arrest—arose from a
battery rather than negligence, whether the excessive force was intended or not. Id. at
593. The court noted that “a police officer’s mistaken or accidental use of more force
than reasonably necessary to make an arrest still ‘arises out of’ the battery claim” and
rendered a judgment of dismissal on the city’s plea to the jurisdiction. Id. at 588, 594.
Green responds that Gordon does not apply here because nothing indicates that
Corporal Davis intended a harmful or offensive contact that would establish an
assault or a battery and that the evidence creates a fact issue as to jurisdiction.
The record reflects that Green alleged the negligent infliction of an injury and
specifically disavowed any intentional tort in his pleadings, and in his deposition, he
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stated that he did not believe that the officer had intended to harm him, although he
thought that the officer had intended to shine the laser in his eye. Corporal Davis
denied any such action. Green argues that his pleadings establish a negligence cause
of action, not an intentional tort disguised as a negligence claim, and that viewing his
pleadings liberally, nothing indicates that Corporal Davis intended a harmful or
offensive contact or Green’s immediate apprehension thereof. See Gordon, 434 S.W.3d
at 589–90 (explaining that Texas civil courts have melded the common law concepts
of assault and battery under assault’s rubric).
While the fundamental difference between a negligent injury and an intentional
injury is the specific intent to inflict injury, Chattha, 2012 WL 503223, at *6 (quoting
Reed Tool Co. v. Copelin, 689 S.W.2d 404, 406 (Tex. 1985)), in Gordon, the court
expressly stated that the distinction drawn between intentional and accidental injuries
in Reed Tool, a workers’ compensation case, was “not particularly helpful in
distinguishing a battery from negligence” because the specific intent to injure is not
one of battery’s essential elements. 434 S.W.3d at 592. Thus, the fact that Corporal
Davis did not intend to hurt Green, assuming that he pointed the laser temperature
gun at Green, does not preclude the gravamen of Green’s claim from setting forth an
intentional tort. See id.
Green alleged that Corporal Davis intentionally caused a physical contact with
him in response to his joke, “He’s got a [T]aser, please don’t tase me!” And he alleged
that the physical contact (via the laser) harmed him. The gravamen of these
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allegations constitute a common law battery claim because the contact—either
offensive or provocative—was an intentional act made in response to Green’s own
provocative statement. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 6.03(a), 22.01(a)(3); Gordon, 434
S.W.3d at 594 (observing that there is no such thing as a negligent battery); see also City
of Fort Worth v. Deal, 552 S.W.3d 366, 368–69 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2018, pet.
denied) (holding that a sufficiently close connection between the deceased’s person
and his vehicle existed such that an unknown police officer’s deployment of a tire-
deflation device that caused the vehicle to crash constituted a battery). Because the
gravamen of Green’s complaint is an intentional tort, the limited TTCA immunity-
waiver does not apply, and the trial court erred by denying Tarrant County’s plea to
the jurisdiction.
Accordingly, we sustain this portion of Tarrant County’s sole issue and do not
reach its “use” argument. See Tex. R. App. P. 47.1. We reverse the trial court’s order
denying Tarrant County’s plea to the jurisdiction and render a judgment of dismissal.
/s/ Bonnie Sudderth
Bonnie Sudderth
Chief Justice
Delivered: October 24, 2019
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