Firefighters Fight in Texas Supreme Court Nets Partial Victory

Texas Supreme Court Decides Two More Firefighter Appeals

March 9, 2007 - Supreme Court hands down two more opinions in appeals from suits by municipal fire fighters over compensation. The unifying theme in these cases is whether their employing local governments are immune from such suits. City of Dallas v. Dora Saucedo-Falls, et al.,No. 05-0973 (Tex. Mar. 9, 2007)(per curiam) City of Sweetwater, Texas v. Waddell, et al,No. 05-1033 (Tex. Mar. 9, 2007)(per curiam)

In City of Dallas v. Saucedo-Falls, the City had asserted a counterclaim for declaratory judgment and attorneys fees against the plaintiffs' suit complaining about denial of a pay raise, but had later filed a plea to the jurisdiction, and sought dismissal. Plaintiffs successfully argued in the trial court and on appeal that the city had waived its immunity by its conduct. In deciding the City's interlocutory appeal in a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court did not announce any new precedent, but remanded the case to the trial court to allow the plaintiffs to argue any viable immunity waiver in the wake of the Legislature's enactment of a limited statutory waiver of local government immunity, which occurred while the case was pending, and its recent sovereign immunity decisions, specifically its holdings in Tooke v. Mexia, and its second opinion in an earlier case involving the City of Dallas, in which it found that the city had waived immunity by filing a claim for affirmative relief of its own. See Reata Constr. Corp. v. City of Dallas, 197 S.W.3d 371 (Tex. 2006); Tooke v. City of Mexia, 197 S.W.3d 325, 343 (Tex. 2006); Loc. Gov't Code §§271.151-.160.

In the Sweetwater case, which was factually similar, the trial court granted the city's jurisdictional plea to the firefighters' claims and dismissed their suit with prejudice. On appeal, the plaintiffs were successful in arguing that the "sue and be sued" language in the city' charter waived its immunity.

The Texas Supreme Court, however, had reversed long-standing precedent for that proposition when it decided Tooke v. City of Mexia and a batch of companion cases at the end of June last year. Following its newly established precedent, the Court thus reversed the Eastland Court of Appeal's judgment and sent the case back to the trial court to determine whether the plaintiffs could proceed under the newly enacted legislation authorizing suits against local governments subject to certain limitations.

Cases cited:

Tex. Educ. Agency v. Leeper, 893 S.W.2d 432, 446 (Tex.1994) (holding, in an action construing the compulsory school attendance law, that the Declaratory Judgments Act, by authorizing actions to construe legislative enactments and attorney fee awards, "necessarily waives governmental immunity for such awards")

City of Irving v. Inform Constr., Inc., 201 S.W.3d 693 (Tex. 2006)

Tooke v. City of Mexia, 197 S.W.3d 325 (Tex. 2006)

Fed. Sign v. Tex. S. Univ., 951 S.W.2d 401, 408 n.1) (Tex. 1997)(waiver by conduct)

Reata Constr. Corp. v. City of Dallas, 197 S.W.3d 371 (Tex. 2006)

Find terms: sovereign immunity, plea to the jurisdiction, immune from suit