The Texas Tort Claims Act requires that a governmental unit obtain notice of a claim against it within six months of the incident giving rise to the claim. Tex. Crv. Prac.
&
Rem.Code § 101.101. We have construed this provision as entitling a governmental unit to formal, written notice of a claim within six months of the incident unless it has actual notice.
Tex. Dep’t of Criminal Justice v. Simons,
The issue in this case is whether the lawsuit itself, served on the governmental unit within six months of the incident and containing аll the requisite information, constitutes proper notice under the Act. The court of appeals concluded it did not and dismissed the case.
Glen Colquitt was injured in a fall while working for a private contractor at the Brazoria County jail. Within two months of his accident, Colquitt filed suit against Brаzoria County alleging negligence and premises liability. Colquitt served the County with his petition, but he did not otherwise provide separate written notice of his claim.
About two years later, the Cоunty filed a plea to the jurisdiction, contending that Colquitt’s failure to provide written notice deprived the trial court of jurisdiction under the Tort Claims Act. The trial court disagreed and denied thе County’s plea. The County elected to take an interlocutory appeal rather than proceed to trial.
1
In that appeal, the court of appeals agreed •with the County, reversing the trial court’s interlocutory order and rendering judgment that Colquitt’s lawsuit be dismissed.
This is an interlocutory appeal over which we have limited jurisdiction.
See
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code § 51.014(a)(8) (authorizing an appeal from
*542
an order denying a governmental unit’s plea to the jurisdiction). Our appellate jurisdictiоn generally extends only to final judgments that dispose of all parties and issues in the case.
Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp.,
In
Cavazos,
the court of appeals held that a lawsuit, served on the governmental unit within six months of the incident, constituted actual notice under the Tort Claims Act.
Cavazos,
The Tort Claims Act’s notice provision provides in pertinent part:
§ 101.101. Notice
(a) A governmental unit is entitled to receive notice of a claim against it under this chapter not later than six months after the day that thе incident giving rise to the claim occurred. The notice must reasonably describe:
(1) the damage or injury claimed;
(2) the time and place of the incident; and
(3) the incident.
(b) ⅝ * *
(c) The notice requirements provided or ratified and approved by Subsections (a) and (b) do not аpply 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 damagеd.
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code § 101.101. In
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas v. Loutzenhiser,
Before this amendment, a failure to comрly with the Tort Claims Act’s mandatory notice requirement resulted in a bar to liability; after the amendment, a similar failure operated to preserve the government’s immunity. In other words, the 2005 amendmеnt to section 311.034 changed the character of the government’s defense from a plea in bar to a plea to the jurisdiction, making the Tort Claims Act’s six-month notice requirement a condition for the governmental unit’s waiver of immunity from suit under the Act. The court of appeals, however, takes the analysis one step further, suggesting that the amendment also potentially shоrtened the Tort Claims Act’s notice period by requiring that notice precede the lawsuit’s physical filing -without regard to whether section 101.101’s six-month notice period had expired.
While we agree that section 311.034 of the Code Construction Act makes compliance with the notice provisions jurisdictional,
City of Dallas v. Carbajal,
The Tort Claims Act, however, does not require that notice be given before filing suit. It requires instead that the government obtain notice within six months of the incident. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rеm.Code § 101.101. As a practical matter, pre-suit notice may be required if the lawsuit is filed more than six months after the incident. But when as here the lawsuit is filed a mere 55 days after the incident, imposing a pre-suit notice requirement is contrary to the text of section 101.101, which aims “to ensure a prompt reporting of claims to enable the [government] to investigate while facts are fresh and conditions remain substantially the same.”
City of Houston v. Torres,
The court of appeals accordingly erred in reading Texas Government Code section 311.034 and Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 101.101 together to impose pre-suit notice as a condition to the government’s waiver of immunity under the circumstances here. The Tort Claims Act does not require pre-suit notice when the claimant’s lawsuit provides all the requisite information and is served within six months of the incident. Bеcause the suit here provided the requisite notice under section 101.101, we grant the petition for review and, without hearing oral argument, reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings. Tex.R.App. P. 59.1.
Notes
. This is the second interlocutory appeal in this case. In the previous appeal, the County argued that Colquitt failed to plead facts sufficient to establish a waiver of governmental immunity under the Tort Claims Act. The court of appeals concluded that the trial court had properly denied the County's jurisdictional challenge because it implicated the merits of the underlying cause of action. See
Brazoria Cnty. v. Colquitt,
. § 311.034. Waiver of Sovereign Immunity
In order to preserve the legislature's interest in managing stаte fiscal matters through the appropriations process, a statute shall not be construed as a waiver of sovereign immunity unless the waiver is effected by clear and unambiguous language. In a statute, the use of ''person,” as defined by Section 311.005 to include governmental entities, does not indicate legislative intent to waive sovereign immunity unless the context of the stаtute indicates no other reasonable construction. Statutory prerequisites to a suit, including the provision of notice, are jurisdictional requirements in all suits against a governmental entity.
Tex. Gov’t Code § 311.034 (emphasis added). The highlighted language was added to the statute in 2005.