§ 101.101.Notice

The notice requirement, and it is where more Tort Claims Act cases are lost than on any other provision.

A governmental unit is entitled to receive notice of a claim not later than six months after the day the incident occurred. The notice must reasonably describe: the damage or injury claimed; the time and place of the incident; and the incident.

Six months, running from the incident — not from discovery of the injury, and not from when the claimant learned a governmental unit was involved.

Subsection (b) is the trap. A city's charter and ordinance provisions requiring notice within a charter period permitted by law are ratified and approved. Many Texas cities require notice in 90 days, some in 45, and a few in less. Those shorter periods are enforceable, and the statutory six months is not a floor.

The practical consequence is that a claim against a city must be measured against that city's charter, not against this section. The six-month period is the outer limit only where no charter provision applies.

Subsection (c) is the escape, and it is narrower than it reads. The requirements do not apply if the governmental unit has actual notice that death has occurred, that the claimant has received some injury, or that the claimant's property has been damaged.

Awareness that an incident occurred is not the same as actual notice of a claim, and the distinction is the substance of most disputes under this subsection.

Because immunity from suit is jurisdictional, a notice failure is not a procedural defect to be cured — it defeats the court's jurisdiction.