Inmate sued county for injuries allegedly sustained when chair he sat in at county jail collapsed.
The District Court granted county’s motion for summary judgment. Inmate appealed. The Fort Worth Court of Appeals reversed. County filed petition for review.
The Supreme Court held that county was immune from liability for inmate’s alleged injuries.
There was no evidence of conscious indifference or recklessness, and thus county was immune from liability for injuries allegedly suffered by inmate when allegedly defective chair, which had been stored in locked multipurpose room after it collapsed when officer sat on it, collapsed during inmate’s treatment for diabetes, although officer was aware that multipurpose room was sometimes used by jail nurses for medical examinations; there was no evidence of frequency of those examinations, how likely chair was to be used in examinations, or other circumstances that might have made those using chair particularly vulnerable to extreme injury.