Cathy Taylor v. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston ( 2005 )

NO. 07-03-0438-CV

07-03-0439-CV

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SEVENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

AT AMARILLO

PANEL A

JUNE 30, 2005

______________________________

TIM KENNEDY, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS THE REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE ESTATE OF EDNA MAE KENNEDY, ET AL., APPELLANTS

V.

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH AT GALVESTON, APPELLEE

_________________________________

FROM THE 136^TH DISTRICT COURT OF JEFFERSON COUNTY;

NO. D-0168353; HONORABLE MILTON SHUFFIELD, JUDGE

_______________________________

and

________________________________

CATHY TAYLOR, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS THE REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE ESTATE OF DOROTHY HEBERT, ET AL., APPELLANTS

V.

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH AT GALVESTON, APPELLEE

__________________________________

FROM THE 172^ND DISTRICT COURT OF JEFFERSON COUNTY;

NO. E0168256; HONORABLE DONALD FLOYD, JUDGE

__________________________________

Before REAVIS and CAMPBELL, JJ. ⁽¹⁾

MEMORANDUM OPINION

These companion cases present another of the appeals challenging the dismissal of claims arising from the operation of the willed body program at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) on a plea to the jurisdiction filed by a governmental entity. We will affirm the trial court's dismissal of claims against UTMB.

The two groups of plaintiffs, appellants here, ⁽²⁾ filed separate suits against UTMB, three of its employees and other entities for mental anguish damages they claim resulted from UTMB's operation of its willed body program. Appellants alleged UTMB failed to return cremation remains of relatives whose bodies had been donated to the program for the advancement of medical science. ⁽³⁾ They also alleged a UTMB employee illegally sold bodies and body parts for profit. ⁽⁴⁾ Appellants asserted claims against UTMB based on negligence, negligent supervision, negligent entrustment, negligence per se, breach of contract, constructive fraud and vicarious liability.

UTMB filed pleas to the jurisdiction in each suit arguing, among other contentions, that appellants failed to allege viable causes of action against it, and failed to allege facts supporting a waiver of governmental immunity. The trial court granted UTMB's pleas in both cases, without stating the specific basis for its rulings. The orders also severed the claims against UTMB in each case, creating the final appealable orders now before us.

Appellants have filed a single brief in support of both appeals. In it they present two issues: (1) whether they adequately alleged a special relationship ⁽⁵⁾ to establish standing to recover mental anguish damages against UTMB; and (2) whether their pleadings properly alleged injuries caused by the use of tangible personal property, bringing their claims within the waiver of immunity under Section 101.021(2) of the Texas Tort Claims Act. ⁽⁶⁾

Appellants presented the same issues in their appeals of the trial court's grant of the pleas to the jurisdiction filed by another defendant in the same cases, the Anatomical Board of Texas, which was affirmed in Taylor, 148 S.W.3d 661. In that opinion, the Beaumont court expressed agreement with the Anatomical Board's contention that the plaintiffs' claims founded on an asserted special relationship authorizing recovery of damages for mental anguish were based on contract, not tort law. Id. at 665. The First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals reached the same conclusion in related cases. See Noah v. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, No. 01-03-0985-CV, 2004 WL 1794642 (Tex.App.-Houston [1^st Dist.] Aug. 12, 2004, pet. denied) (not yet reported); University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston v. Harrison, No. 14-02-1276-CV, 2003 WL 21803314 (Tex.App.-Houston [14^th Dist.] 2003, pet. denied) (mem. op.). We will follow those courts' lead here. Because the donation agreements ⁽⁷⁾ by which the decedents or family members authorized donation of the decedents' bodies spell out UTMB's obligations for the return of the cremation remains, see DeWitt County Elec. Co-op v. Parks, 1 S.W.3d 96, 105 (Tex. 1999), and for the further reasons discussed in Noah at 5, we find that appellants' special relationship claims sound in contract.

Appellants argue that the duties concerning handling of willed bodies imposed by provisions of the Health and Safety Code and the Administrative Code ⁽⁸⁾ give rise to a legally cognizable special relationship between them and UTMB. The court rejected those contentions in Noah, and we also conclude that the statutory and administrative provisions cited do not form a basis for UTMB's liability to appellants independent of their relationship under the donation agreements. See Noah, at 6.

By contracting with a private party, a governmental unit waives immunity from liability under the contract but not immunity from suit. It waives immunity from suit only through express consent. See Catalina Dev., Inc. v. County of El Paso, 121 S.W.3d 704, 705 (Tex. 2003); Federal Sign v. Texas Southern Univ., 951 S.W.2d 401, 408 (Tex. 1997). Appellants have not shown the existence of the required express consent for suit against UTMB based on breach of contract. ⁽⁹⁾ Appellants contend that, even if their claims against UTMB are based in contract, the medical school waived its immunity from suit by accepting the donated bodies and making use of them then breaching its agreement to return the cremated remains. See Catalina, 121 S.W.3d 705-06; Federal Sign, 951 S.W.2d at 408 n.1. On this point also we will follow the Harrison and Noah opinions, and decline to find that UTMB's conduct served to waive its immunity. Noah, at 7; Harrison, at 2. See also Taylor, 148 S.W.3d at 665. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in its grant of UTMB's plea to the jurisdiction.

Appellants' first issue is overruled, and our disposition of it makes consideration of their second issue unnecessary. We affirm the orders of the trial court dismissing appellants' claims against UTMB.

James T. Campbell

Justice

1. Former Chief Justice Phil Johnson was on the panel that heard oral argument. He did not participate in the decision. Tex. R. App. P. 41.1(b).

2. Appellants are the same parties listed in the opinion in Taylor v. Anatomical Board of Texas, 148 S.W.3d 661, 662-63 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 2004, pet. denied).

3. The bodies were provided in conformity with the Texas Anatomical Gift Act. See Tex. Health & Safety Code Chapter 692 (Vernon 2003 & Supp. 2004).

4. The petitions did not allege the sale of any specific body.

5. See City of Tyler v. Likes, 962 S.W.2d 489, 496 (Tex. 1997) (mental anguish compensable as the foreseeable result of a breach of duty arising out of certain special relationships).

6. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 101.021(2) (Vernon 2005).

7. Referred to in Taylor as the "willed body forms." 148 S.W.3d at 665.

8. Appellants cite Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 691.022 (Vernon Supp. 2004), and regulations of the Anatomical Board, 25 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 477.4, 479.4 and 479.5 (2003).

9. The provisions of Chapter 2260 of the Government Code have no application here because appellants' claims are for personal injury. See Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 2260.002 (Vernon 2000).

U. S. Supreme Court does not require proof of harm. Cain v. State, 947 S.W.2d 262, 264 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997). However, seating a disqualified juror is not among the structural errors identified by the Court as being immune from harmless error analysis. See Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 468-69, 117 S. Ct. 1544, 137 L. Ed. 2d 718 (1997). Neither is this error a constitutional error within the meaning of Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 44.2(a). ⁽¹⁾ Jones v. State, 982 S.W.2d 386, 390-91 (Tex.Crim.App.1998). Thus, we are required, pursuant to rule 44.2(b), to determine if the error affected a substantial right of the appellant. Llamas v. State, 12 S.W.3d 469, 470 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000). A substantial right is affected when the error had a substantial or injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict. Id. To determine whether such harm occurred, everything in the record must be considered, including all the evidence admitted at trial, the closing arguments, and the juror's comments during voir dire. Id. at 471.

In the present case, there was no discussion of the facts of the case during voir dire. Juror McKissack was questioned one time by the State's attorney on matters not involved in this appeal. During the State's case-in-chief, the evidence consisted of the testimony of the officer who chased appellant and the detective who took a statement from appellant, wherein appellant admitted committing the offense of evading. The appellant called no witnesses during the guilt-innocence phase. After both sides had rested and closed, juror McKissack informed the court that she had seen some of the events involved in the case. McKissack was questioned by the court and both parties. McKissack advised that she saw only the very end of the incident, knew something was going on but did not know what until the State's opening statement reminded her of the incident in front of the school. McKissack stated that she believed that she could make her decision based only on the evidence she had heard in court. Viewing all of the evidence contained in the record, we conclude that the evidence establishing appellant's guilt for the underlying charge of evading arrest with a motor vehicle was substantial. Accordingly, under the analysis mandated by rule 44.2(b), we conclude that the error in retaining the juror did not influence the jury or had a very slight effect on its verdict. Johnson v. State, 967 S.W.2d 410, 417 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998). Therefore, the error was harmless. Inasmuch as the error in keeping juror McKissack is deemed harmless, the refusal to grant a mistrial based on the retention of the juror was not so prejudicial that "expenditure of further time and expense would be wasteful and futile." Wood, 18 S.W.3d at 648. Appellant's first issue is therefore overruled.

Appellant's second issue contends that the evidence was legally insufficient to sustain a finding that he used or exhibited a deadly weapon. An attack on the legal sufficiency of the evidence requires us to review all the evidence in a light most favorable to the jury's verdict. Cates v. State, 102 S.W.3d 735, 738 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979)). Upon reviewing the evidence, we must determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. The evidence is measured against a hypothetically correct charge. Gollihar v. State, 46 S.W.3d 243, 255-56 (Tex.Crim.App. 2001).

To sustain a deadly weapon finding, the evidence must show that the object in question meets the requirement of a deadly weapon, see Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 1.07(a)(17)(B) (Vernon 2003); the deadly weapon was used during the transaction from which the conviction was obtained, see Ex parte Jones, 957 S.W.2d 849, 851 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997); and that other people were put in actual danger, Cates, 102 S.W.3d at 738. A motor vehicle may become a deadly weapon if used in a manner capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. Ex parte McKithan, 838 S.W.2d 560, 561 (Tex.Crim.App. 1992).

Appellant contends that the evidence does not support the jury's finding that he used his motor vehicle as a deadly weapon because there was no direct testimony that anyone was placed in actual danger by appellant's operation of the vehicle. According to appellant, evidence must be presented that he caused actual danger to the public rather than merely posing some hypothetical threat of danger. Cates, 102 S.W.3d at 738. In addressing the legal sufficiency of the evidence necessary to support a deadly weapon finding, the Court of Criminal Appeals held, in Drichas v. State, No. PD-1915-04, 2005 WL 2660161, at *3 (Tex.Crim.App. Oct. 19, 2005), that the manner that the vehicle in question was used proved more than just a hypothetical danger, even though the testimony was only that there was "some traffic" on the road at the time of the occurrence.

The record reveals that, while evading arrest, appellant ignored a stop sign and drove through an intersection without stopping, drove through a residential area at speeds up to 60 miles per hour, and continuously ignored the emergency lights on the patrol car behind him. This record shows that, by the manner of its use, appellant's vehicle was capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. We find that, when this evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could find that appellant used his vehicle as a deadly weapon beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, appellant's second issue is overruled.

Having overruled appellant's issues, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

Mackey K. Hancock

Justice  

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