The Courts


Texas Ninth Court of Appeals (Beaumont)
No ISD Liability in Vehicular Accident

Ruling: A motorist who reportedly ran a red light and struck a school-district vehicle driven by a school employee waited too late to sue the district and the employee for negligence. Tracey Denby v. Joseph Herman and Beaumont ISD, No. 09-18-00420-CV. Issued Jan. 23.

The accident reportedly happened on March 16, 2016, when a vehicle driven by Tracey Denby and a vehicle driven by Joseph Herman collided at a Beaumont intersection after (according to the police report) Denby disregarded a red light before entering the intersection.

Some time afterward, Herman sued Denby on negligence claims.

Then, about a year after the accident, Denby countersued Herman and BISD on similar negligence claims because (Denby alleged) Herman was working for BISD and was driving a car belonging to BISD when the accident occurred.

Denby appealed after the trial judge dismissed her suit.

A three-member Ninth Court panel upheld dismissal of Denby’s suit on conclusions that, under applicable state law:
  • Herman is dismissed from the suit because, as an BISD employee, he and the district can’t be jointly sued for negligence over the same incident.

  • BISD is dismissed from the suit because Denby did not serve the mandated “actual notice” to the district, within six months of the accident, that she would likely be suing BISD for negligence. Instead, Denby’s attorney did not provide BISD the “actual notice” that she intended to sue until many months later.

Denby unsuccessfully argued that because the accident involved a BISD vehicle that was driven by a BISD employee who was performing job-related duties at the time, the district had effectively received the required “active notice” of her intent to sue for negligence on the day of, or very shortly after, the accident.

But, the justices said the police report stating that Denby had run a red light prior to colliding with the vehicle driven by Herman leads to a conclusion that BISD did not know as of the date of the accident that the district would be the subject of a negligence law suit.