§ 78.052.Applicability of Subchapter: Marine Fire Emergency

An applicability provision drawn with unusual geographic precision.

The subchapter applies only to damages arising from an error or omission of a nonprofit fire department providing services to respond to marine fire emergencies under contract to a governmental unit, or of a fire fighter providing those services — where the error or omission occurs in responding to a marine fire emergency:

on the navigable waters of this state; in any place into which a vessel enters or from which a vessel departs the waterway leading to that place from the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway; on property owned or under the control of the governmental unit; or at the request of the governmental unit in the interest of public safety.

The second location is the widest. It reaches any place connected by waterway to the Gulf or the Intracoastal — which covers the docks, terminals, and industrial facilities along the Texas coast where vessels berth.

The fourth is wider still in a different direction. A response at the request of the governmental unit in the interest of public safety is covered wherever it occurs, so a department called out beyond the water is within the subchapter.

The contract requirement is the constant. The department must be providing the services under contract to a governmental unit, which is what justifies giving it that unit's liability position.