Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. Susana Lopez

Summary

The Texas Court of Appeals, Eighth District, considered an accelerated interlocutory appeal from the denial of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction in Susana Lopez’s Texas Commission on Human Rights Act retaliation lawsuit. The court held that HHSC produced legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons for terminating Lopez, including training delinquency and unauthorized cell-phone use, and that Lopez failed to raise a fact issue showing those reasons were pretextual. The court reversed and rendered judgment dismissing the underlying lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction.

Holdings

1. HHSC rebutted any prima facie presumption of retaliation by producing evidence that it terminated Lopez for legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons: failure to remain current with required training and unauthorized use of her personal cell phone.
2. Lopez failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact that HHSC's stated reasons for termination were false and a pretext for retaliation.
3. Because Lopez failed to produce evidence supporting a TCHRA retaliation violation, she failed to invoke the TCHRA's limited waiver of sovereign immunity, requiring dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court erred in denying HHSC's plea to the jurisdiction because HHSC produced legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons for terminating Lopez.
2. Whether Lopez raised a genuine issue of material fact that HHSC's stated reasons were false and a pretext for retaliation under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act.
3. Whether Lopez produced evidence satisfying the but-for causation standard applicable to her TCHRA retaliation claim.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded