Texas Supreme Court Agrees to Consider
ISD Golf Cart Accident Insurance Dispute
The Texas Supreme Court (TSC) announced (June 11) that it will consider an appeal revolving around the question of if a school district’s automobile insurance policy provided coverage for a golf cart mishap that left a student injured. Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD v. Texas Political Subdivisions [TPS] Property/Casualty Joint Self Insurance Fund, No. 20-0033.
Background
PSJA ISD appealed to the TSC seeking to preserve a trial judge’s decision ordering TPS — the ISD’s self insurance carrier during the relevant events — to reimburse the district for: 1) the $100,000 damage award a judge ordered PSJA ISD to pay in 2017 to a now-former high school student who was injured in a 2010 mishap involving the district-owned golf cart and 2) the $129,806.20 the district spent in attorney fees challenging the student’s lawsuit without the assistance of TPS.
The TSC’s decision to hear the appeal freezes, for now, a directive by a Corpus Christi appeals court to send the lawsuit back to the trial court judge for reconsideration.
The ISD contends that the golf cart (and thus claims arising from the mishap with the golf cart) was covered by its automobile insurance policy with TPS. TPS disagreed, and said the policy excluded golf carts.
- Note: Reports reflect the two-seater golf cart that was assigned to the ISD’s athletic department had a flatbed trailer — and was being driven by an athletic trainer to take water, equipment and other supplies to where a junior high football game was to begin. When the golf cart turned sharply, student athlete Alexis Flores, 15 (one of two students on board), was ejected and landed on her right knee, tearing her ACL.
Flores is not a party to the litigation between TPS and PSJA ISD.
TSC said the time and date for oral arguments will be announced later.