City of Denton v. Rachel Paper

The Texas Tort Claims Act generally limits a governmental unit’s potential liability for premise-liability damages by classifying the user of the government’s real property as a licensee rather than an invitee. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code § 101.022(a). This limitation does not apply, however, when the government’s duty to warn involves a special defect such as an excavation or obstruction on a highway, road, or street. Id. § 101.022(b). The principal question in this premises-liability suit against a city is whether a depression or sunken area in a roadway, a few inches deep, constitutes an…