§ 101.0211.No Liability for Joint Enterprise

A targeted removal of one common law route to liability.

The common law doctrine of vicarious liability because of participation in a joint enterprise does not impose liability under this chapter on a water district created under the named constitutional provisions, regardless of how created; or on a municipality with respect to the use of a municipal airport for space flight activities, unless the municipality would otherwise be liable under the waiver section.

Joint enterprise liability makes each participant in a common undertaking answerable for the others' negligence. Water districts commonly operate reservoirs, levees, and supply systems jointly with other districts and authorities, and the doctrine would spread one participant's liability across all of them.

The space flight provision is narrower still, confined to the use of a municipal airport for those activities. Texas municipalities host commercial launch operations, and the exclusion keeps a city from being drawn into liability for a launch operator's conduct through the joint enterprise theory.

Neither is a general immunity. The municipality remains liable if it would otherwise be liable under Section 101.021 on its own conduct — the section removes a theory of vicarious liability, not liability itself.

Subsection (b) confirms the caps still apply, including the damages limitation section.