## Facts

- Michael Mitchell alleged he graduated from Prairie View A&M University in May 1981 with a B.S. in civil engineering.
- Mitchell worked as a civil engineer for multiple employers and in 1993 accepted a senior engineer position with Bechtel Corporation.
- Bechtel sought verification of Mitchell’s degree from the university; the university allegedly reported that Mitchell had not completed coursework and had not obtained a degree.
- Bechtel allegedly required Mitchell to take unpaid leave because it could not obtain confirmation of graduation.
- Mitchell and his wife, Yvette Mitchell, sued the university for negligence, asserting derivative damages for Yvette.
- The petition alleged Registrar’s Office employees negligently operated “computers and/or typewriters and other tangible record keeping devices,” causing inaccurate information to be communicated.
- The Mitchells invoked the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA), claiming the negligence arose from the use of tangible personal property.

## Issues

1. Whether allegations that university employees used computers/typewriters to communicate inaccurate graduation information plead a “condition or use of tangible personal property” sufficient to waive governmental immunity under TTCA § 101.021(2).
2. Whether a claim based on the content of erroneous information, even if generated or transmitted through physical devices, provides a jurisdictional basis to sue a governmental unit.

## Decision

- The court of appeals reversed the trial court’s denial of the university’s plea to the jurisdiction.
- The court rendered judgment granting the plea to the jurisdiction and dismissed the suit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
- The court held the pleadings alleged injury from erroneous information, not from a condition or use of tangible personal property within the TTCA’s waiver.

## Legal Principles

- A governmental unit retains sovereign immunity unless the plaintiff’s pleadings affirmatively show a TTCA waiver.
- TTCA § 101.021(2) waives immunity only when injury is proximately caused by a condition or use of tangible personal or real property, and requires a direct causal nexus between the property’s condition/use and the injury.
- Information is not tangible personal property; injuries arising from incorrect data or statements are not transformed into “tangible property” claims merely because computers, typewriters, or records systems were involved.
- Tangible devices that serve only as mechanisms for storing or transmitting information do not trigger the TTCA waiver absent allegations that the physical property itself was defective or improperly used in a way that caused the injury.

## Conclusion

Because the Mitchells’ allegations centered on the communication of inaccurate graduation information rather than a property-based injury caused by the condition or use of tangible personal property, the TTCA did not waive the university’s immunity, and the trial court lacked jurisdiction.


Prairie View A&M Univ. of Tex. v. Mitchell, 27 S.W.3d 323 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2000, pet. denied)