State Agency Soverign Immunity Standard
by admin - August 7th, 2009.Filed under: Administrative Appeals, Federal Contracting & Appeals, General Texas Administrative Law, Licensing & Defense Law, Soverign Governmental Immunity, Texas Agency Board Defense Law, Texas Agency Compliance & Reporting Law, Texas Agriculture Law, Texas Alcohol & Beverage Law, Texas Architect Defense Law, Texas Cable Law, Texas Commercial Development Law, Texas Commercial Driver's License Defense Law, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Law, Texas Condemnation & Inverse Condemnation Law, Texas Customs & Border Law, Texas Dental Defense Law, Texas Driver's License Defense Law, Texas Electric Law, Texas Engineer Defense Law, Texas Environmental Law, Texas Hotel & Resort Law, Texas Import & Export Law, Texas Insurance Agent Defense Law, Texas Land Use & Zoning Law, Texas Lottery Winner Representation Law, Texas Medical & Doctor Defense Law, Texas Nurse Defense Law, Texas Oil & Gas Law, Texas Petroleum & Refinery Law, Texas Railroad Commission Law, Texas Real Estate Agent & Broker Defense Law, Texas Restaurant Law & Representation, Texas Retail Law & Representation, Texas School Law and Independent School District Law & Representation, Texas State Agency Rule Making, Texas Teachers Defense Law, Texas Telecommunications Law, Texas Tourism Law, Texas Transportation Law, Texas Utilities Law, Texas Veterinarian Defense Law, Texas Water Rights and Water Law, Uncategorized.
Sovereign immunity from suit defeats a trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction and is properly asserted or argued through a plea to the jurisdiction. See Texas Dept. of Parks and Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 225B26 (Tex. 2004). Whether a trial court has subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law reviewed de novo. Id. at 228. In deciding a plea to the jurisdiction, a court may not consider the merits of the case, but only the pleadings and the evidence relevant to the jurisdictional inquiry. See Moore v. University of Houston-Clear Lake, 165 S.W.3d 97, 101 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2005, no pet.).
This means that when a plea to the jurisdiction is properly asserted, the judge or court cannot consider or review the substance or merits of the underlying suit. In other words, only the merit of whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the case should be review. This is called “subject matter jurisdiction.”
When reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a plea to the jurisdiction, the higher court should construe the plaintiff’s pleadings liberally in the plaintiff’s favor and look to the pleader’s intent. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d at 226. The higher court should take as true all evidence favorable to the nonmovant and indulge every reasonable inference and resolve any doubts in the nonmovant’s favor. Id. at 228.
Generally, and for the most part, state agencies and governmental entities are immune from law suit. Unless specifically waived by statute or law, a governmental entity cannot be sued. When a state agency or governmental agency does get sued. Most frequently, government attorneys will raise the defense of governmental immunity or soverign immunity. However, there are specific statues that waive governmental immunity. Contact a Texas administrative law attorney to discuss your specific case or lawsuit against a governmental entity.