33rd / 424th District Courts

The following is taken from the online Sup. Ct. emails of synopses of cases and is of broad enough interest to replicate here.

03-0448

Texas A&M University v. Paul A. Bishop

from Galveston County and the 14th District Court of Appeals, Houston

Justices Brister and Green did not participate

REVERSED AND DISMISSED, opinion by Justice O’Neill:

The principal issues in this
personal-injury suit arising from an accidental stabbing during a
student play are (1) whether the play’s director was an independent
contractor or university employee and (2) whether, if the directors
were independent contractors, the Texas Tort Claims Act’s exception for
the use of tangible personal property is triggered when a student actor
accidentally stabbed another with a knife provided by the independent
contractor during a play the faculty advisors supervised. In this case
Bishop, a student actor, was stabbed by another student during
performance of the play “Dracula.” The play’s director had approved use
of a real knife with a “stab pad,” but the faculty drama club advisors
testified they were unaware of that decision. University policy forbids
dangerous weapons on campus. The court of appeals affirmed the trial
court’s judgment in Bishop’s favor, holding that the faculty advisors
were negligent in supervision of the play and that negligence was a use
of tangible personal property.