Opinion issued March 28, 2019 In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-17-00660-CV ——————————— GREGORY DEFRANCESCO, Appellant V. MEMORIAL VILLAGES POLICE DEPARTMENT, Appellee On Appeal from the 190th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 2015-43853 MEMORANDUM OPINION After appellee Memorial Villages Police Department terminated appellant Gregory DeFrancesco as an officer, DeFrancesco filed a lawsuit under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, alleging that MVPD retaliated against him after making complaints about a hostile work environment he claimed was caused by other officers discriminating against him based on his Hispanic heritage and age. After some discovery, MVPD filed a plea to the jurisdiction and moved for summary judgment, arguing that the trial court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over DeFrancesco’s claims because he failed to state a viable retaliation claim under Texas Labor Code section 21.055 and it was therefore protected from suit by its sovereign immunity. The trial court granted the plea and motion. DeFrancesco appeals, arguing that the trial court’s ruling was improper because he did state a viable retaliation claim and because he raised genuine issues of material fact that needed to be resolved by a factfinder. Because we conclude that the evidence conclusively negates DeFrancesco’s claim that he engaged in a protected activity, we affirm. Background After twenty-eight years in the Houston Police Department, appellant Gregory DeFrancesco retired and began working for appellee Memorial Villages Police Department. MVPD is an interlocal agency that covers the Cities of Bunker Hill, Piney Point, and Hunter’s Creek. MVPD’s governing body is a six-member Board of Commissions. All MVPD employees are at-will employees who “serve at the will and pleasure of the Commission.” The Commission has the exclusive power of terminating police-officer employees. 2 DeFrancesco’s claimed Hispanic heritage DeFrancesco’s lawsuit against MVPD, in large part, centers around his allegation that he claimed some of his fellow MVPD officers were harassing him because of his Hispanic heritage. Whether DeFrancesco does in fact have a Hispanic heritage is in dispute. Accordingly, we discuss some of the circumstances surrounding DeFrancesco’s claimed Hispanic heritage. DeFrancesco was born in Bronx, New York. He never knew his biological parents, Bill Ryan, who is Irish, and Barbara Stafford, whose heritage is unknown. He was adopted by Steve DeFrancesco, whose parents were born in Italy. DeFrancesco spoke only English until he became an adult and learned Spanish through formal coursework. He grew up in a primarily Italian neighborhood and “identifies [himself] as having Italian upbringing, Italian heritage, Italian culture.” To DeFrancesco, the term “Hispanic” means “[s]omebody that has genetic or relatives that come from a Hispanic country.” DeFrancesco claims that his adoptive grandfather—the father of the man who adopted him—came from Spain and that he is therefore Hispanic. DeFrancesco’s claim of Hispanic heritage is relatively new. During his first marriage, between 1985 and 1991, he could not recall whether he referred to himself as Hispanic. For the first several years of his employment with the Houston Police Department, he identified as ...
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