In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a team from King & Spalding notches an early win for Vistra in a dispute with the city of Sulphur Springs over the use of land that formerly housed a lignite mine, a healthcare executive faces prison after pleading guilty to fraud, and a $51 million win secured by Dean Omar Branham Shirley against Avon in a mesothelioma case is upheld on appeal in California.
The Litigation Roundup is a weekly feature highlighting the work Texas lawyers are doing inside and outside the state. Have a development we should include next week? Please let us know at tlblitigation@texaslawbook.net.
Travis County District Court
Wind Turbine Co. Draws Suit Over ‘Illegal’ Disposal of Blades
Global Fiberglass Solutions has been sued by the state of Texas for allegedly illegally dumping thousands of spent wind turbine blades in West Texas.
The company was hired by several companies to recycle turbine blades, according to the lawsuit, but failed to properly dispose of more than 3,000 of them, in violation of solid waste disposal laws, the state alleges.
Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a news release after the lawsuit was filed, saying the “illegal disposal of wind turbines hurts our land.”
Texas is seeking an injunction that would require cleanup of the sites where the blades are currently sitting, in addition to civil penalties.
The case, filed Feb. 3, has been assigned to Travis County District Judge Amy Clark Meachum.
The case is being prosecuted by Aidan Read and Avery Yu of the attorney general’s office.
The case number is D-1-GN-26-000759.
Hopkins County District Court
Court Grants Injunction in Old Mine Deed Dispute
In a dispute over the use of a 4,900-acre property deeded to the city of Sulphur Springs by Luminant, the energy company won the first round, securing a temporary injunction that, for now, prohibits the city from using the land for the commercial production, generation or storage of electricity.
According to court documents, Sulphur Springs filed this lawsuit in October against Luminant Mining Company, Luminant Generation, its parent company Vistra Corp. and Luminant Vice President Matthew Goering. The dispute centers on Luminant’s decision to gift the land, where it formerly operated a lignite and coal mine, to the city in 2019.
The city argued the deal allowed Luminant to retain easements to fulfill obligations to the Texas Railroad Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas Department of Transportation. Luminant argues the governing documents also barred the city from using the land for “commercial production, commercial generation or commercial storage of electricity in any form” or the “siting of a commercial power station or energy storage facility of any kind.”
In 2025, according to court documents, the city reached an $18.7 billion development deal with MSB Global Services to build data centers on the site.
Judge Gary D. Young entered the six-page order siding with Luminant and Vistra Feb. 10, finding there was a restrictive covenant barring such use. The judge also rejected Sulphur Springs argument that it was entitled to a summary judgment win because the covenant was unenforceable as against public policy.
According to the order, a status conference will take place in July and the dispute is currently set for trial in September.
Luminant and Vistra are represented by Natalie Arbaugh and Tom Melsheimer of King & Spalding.
Sulphur Springs is represented by city attorney Nate Smith.
MBS Global is represented by Rob Knight of Flowers Davis in Tyler.
The case number is CV45943.
Southern District of Texas
Ex-Spouse of Astronaut Gets Prison
A woman who falsely claimed her spouse illegally accessed her bank account while onboard the International Space Station will spend the next three months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett sentenced Summer Heather Worden Feb. 12 to three months in prison and two years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $210,000 in restitution.
Worden made her claims against her former spouse while they were going through a divorce, alleging that in July 2019 the spouse accessed her bank account from the ISS after guessing her password. After that claim was debunked via an investigation, prosecutors allege Worden continued making the claim, even hiring a media consultant and contacting reporters to spread the story.
Worden was indicted in February 2020 on two counts of making false statements to federal agents, six counts of wire fraud and three counts of making financial transactions with proceeds from unlawful activity. She pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements and entered a plea agreement in November.
Worden is represented by Dan Cogdell of Cogdell Law Firm.
The federal government is represented by Richard D. Hanes and Brandon Fyffe of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 4:20-cr-00125.
Eastern District of Texas
Exxon Mobil Can Proceed with Defamation Case Against Cali AG
Friday the 13th was a good day for Exxon Mobil, as U.S. District Judge Michael J. Truncale issued an order rejecting an attempt by the California attorney general to bring an early end to the oil giant’s defamation lawsuit against him.
Exxon filed suit against the attorney general, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, Baykeeper and the Intergenerational Environmental Justice Fund in January 2025, alleging it was defamed in the wake of the filing of a pair of environmental lawsuits in California accusing the oil giant of wrongdoing related to plastic pollution.
Exxon specifically pointed to comments calling it a “liar,” a “polluter,” a “source” of “wreckage” and a “perpetuator” of the “myth” of plastic recycling.
In a 46-page order Judge Truncale trimmed the scope of the lawsuit, finding he did not have jurisdiction over the four environmental groups and the IEJF, but wrote that the court does have “specific personal jurisdiction” over Robert Andres Bonta.
Judge Truncale found that because California isn’t the target of the lawsuit, Eleventh Amendment immunity does not apply to shield Bonta from the claims. The argument that official immunity barred the claims against Bonta did not fare better. In particular, Judge Truncale noted that one of the complained-of comments was made by Bonta in an election email sent to Texas residents that included a link to make campaign contributions.
“Bonta argues the email was official because it “informed recipients of his office’s activities and its management of the public business, even if it ‘allegedly acted partly to serve his own interests,’” the order reads. “In other words, Bonta believes his email as official communication that just so happened to include a campaign contribution link. It is the link’s presence that changes things.”
“Here, the contribution request betrays the email’s true nature: a campaign promotion. Campaigning is not within Bonta’s scope of employment.”
The Exxon lawsuit came after California accused it of “engaging in a decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.”
“Why would Mr. Bonta or anyone who claims to be serious about cleaning up the environment and helping solve the plastic waste issue take such extreme measures to shut down the emerging and developing advanced recycling industry?” the lawsuit asks. “The answer is foreign influence, personal ambition, and a murky source of financing rife with conflicting business interests. With apparently no appreciation for the irony of their claim, Mr. Bonta and his cohorts are now engaging in reverse greenwashing; while posing under the banner of environmentalism, they do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation.”
Exxon is represented by Michael Cash, Kathryn Gonski, Kelly Becker and Wade Howard of Liskow & Lewis.
Bonta is represented by Robert Setrakian and R. Matthew Wise of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 1:25-cv-00011.
Execs Face Prison in $70M Healthcare Fraud
The president and senior executive of a healthcare billing company, who played a role in orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to bill insurance companies for medical services provided to injured student athletes have entered guilty pleas.
Vivature’s president, Mouzon “Muzzy” Bass III, 60, of Highland Park, and senior executive Lance Wilson, 57, of Allen, who were set to face a jury trial Feb. 23 in Marshall before Chief U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with the scheme that also involved Covid-19 testing.
The crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing date for either man had not been set as of Monday.
A total of four individuals were indicted in the scheme. Dr. Kyle Carter of Keller, Texas, was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after a jury trial in August 2024. Dr. Robert Scott pled guilty to aiding and abetting health care theft and was sentenced to six months of probation in November.
Bass is represented by Scott Thomas of Latham & Watkins and Dylan French of Winston & Strawn.
Wilson is represented by Arnold Spencer of Spencer & Associates.
The federal government is represented by Anand Varadarajan and Adrian Garcia of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 4:24-cr-00007.
Northern District of Texas
Feds Get Indictment Against Five in $220M Cattle Fraud Case
A grand jury in Fort Worth on Thursday handed down indictments against five individuals, two of whom live in Texas, for their alleged involvement in what prosecutors call a $220 million nationwide fraud involving cattle purchase contracts.
Jed Wood of Fort Worth, Royana Thomas of Arlington, Joshua Link of Strafford, Missouri, Tia Link of Smithton, Missouri, and Taylor Bang of Kildeer, North Dakota, were named in the indictment.
U.S. attorney for the Northern District, Ryan Raybould, issued a statement accusing the group of defrauding “thousands of unwitting investors, ranchers and others in the cattle industry.”
Each defendant had an association with Agridime, a business headquartered in Fort Worth offering cattle sales and meat processing services. Wood was operations director, Joshua Link was executive director, Tia Link was marketing director, Bang was a cattle broker and Thomas was financial controller.
Prosecutors allege from 2021 through 2023 the defendants defrauded investors into thinking their money would go to purchase specific cattle that would be raised and sold for meat and that they would share in the profits from the sale. A total of more than 2,200 investors were victims of the fraud, according to the government.
But instead, the funds were used to pay Agridime operating expenses, personal expenses and to pay money owed to earlier investors, the government alleges.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman is presiding over the cases.
Wood is represented by Katherine Devlin of Vedder Price.
Thomas is represented by Harry E. White of Nickols White Soloman and James P. Whalen of Whalen Law Office.
Bang is represented by Dan Cogdell and James Osso of Cogdell Law Firm.
Tia Link is represented by John M. Helms. Joshua Link, who according to the docket has a warrant out for his arrest, has not retained counsel. The FBI has asked for the public’s help in locating him.
Mark McDonald of the Department of Justice is prosecuting the case.
The case number is 4:26-cr-00051.
California Court of Appeals, Second District, Eighth Division
DOBS’ $51M Win Against Avon Upheld
Avon lost a bid to undo a jury’s award of $51 million in damages in a mesothelioma case where Dallas-based Dean Omar Branham Shirley represented the family of a woman who developed terminal cancer after years of using the company’s products.
California’s Second District Court of Appeals upheld the verdict Feb. 11.
Rita-Ann Chapman died in March 2025, about two years after the verdict in her favor was issued. She and her husband, Gary, filed suit against Avon alleging the company knew the talc it used in cosmetic products was contaminated and caused Chapman’s mesothelioma.
On appeal, Avon challenged the admission of certain expert testimony and some evidentiary rulings.
“Avon has waived its challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and part or all of each of its challenges to the admission or exclusion of evidence,” the opinion reads. “Further, Avon has failed to show error or abuse of discretion in the trial court’s evidentiary rulings.”
Avon is represented by of Amari L. Hammonds, Lisset Pino, Geoffrey Shaw, Robert M. Loeb and Upnit K. Bhatti of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Chapman is represented by Lisa W. Shirley, Jessica Dean and Benjamin H. Adams of DOBS.
Dean issued a statement touting the appellate ruling as an affirmation “that corporate misconduct will not go unanswered.”
“Companies cannot ignore science, disregard their own internal warnings and put profits over people’s health without being held accountable,” she said. “Avon was aware of asbestos concerns in talc dating back to the 1970s and was involved in industry testing, yet it never warned consumers.”
The case number is B327749.
Fifth Court of Appeals, Dallas
Panel Trims Suit Against Attorney Over $15M Settlement Agreement
A Dallas lawyer partially won his appeal seeking dismissal of a lawsuit Ocwen Financial Corporation brought against him, accusing him of breaching a $15 million agreement not to sue the company again.
Samuel L. Boyd will not have to face claims for breach of contract and tortious interference brought by Ocwen, because they are barred by attorney immunity under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. But he cannot use the TCPA to knock out a claim for fraudulent inducement, an appellate panel held Feb. 9.
The panel explained the TCPA doesn’t apply to claims for common law fraud.
According to the opinion, Boyd represented a client, Michael Fisher, in a qui tam case against Ocwen in 2012, alleging violations of the False Claims Act and accusing the company of violating laws regulating the residential mortgage industry.
In 2017, Ocwen entered a settlement to end the Fisher case, agreeing to pay the United States $15 million and an additional $15 million in attorney fees. That deal was signed by Fisher, a representative of the federal government and an attorney acting as attorneys for relators.
Boyd did not sign the agreement and two years later filed another qui tam suit against Ocwen on behalf of new clients. Ocwen has alleged Boyd planned to sue it again “before the ink was even dry on the Fisher settlement,” in violation of the agreement.
Boyd appealed after Collin County District Judge Andrea Thompson issued a July 3 order denying his motion to dismiss the suit.
Justices Craig Smith, Emily Miskel and Cynthia M. Barbare sat on the panel.
Boyd is represented by Nicole T. LeBoeuf and Amy S. Ooi of LeBoeuf Law.
Ocwen is represented by Robert T. Mowrey, W. Scott Hastings, Thomas F. Loose, C. Scott Jones and Katherine S. Wright of Troutman Pepper Locke.
The case number is 05-25-00916-CV.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
San Antonio Attorney, Sentenced to 50 Years, Sees Guilty Plea Vacated
Two years ago, San Antonio attorney Christopher John Pettit was sentenced to 50 years in prison for perpetrating what prosecutors called a Ponzi-like scheme with client funds.
But earlier this month, a panel of judges determined Pettit correctly argued on appeal he had not been properly advised of the possible maximum penalties he faced after pleading guilty to three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. Pettit, who was 56 years old when he pleaded guilty, argued on appeal he believed he faced a maximum of 30 years in prison.
“Pettit argues that the district court committed a clear and obvious error when it failed to ensure that Pettit understood, before pleading guilty, that he faced a maximum prison sentence of 90 years,” the panel wrote. “Pettit further argues that this error affected Pettit’s substantial rights because, had Pettit been properly advised of the maximum possible prison sentence, he would not have entered the plea. We agree.”
Pettit was accused of causing his clients total losses of between $20 million and $65 million during the fraud that lasted more than 20 years.
Clients had given Pettit, who operated Chris Pettit & Associates, money to establish trusts, handle estate planning and also for services including investments and real estate transactions. But Pettit instead used the funds to pay other client debts and for personal expenses, prosecutors alleged.
Pettit told some clients he would invest their money in high percentage bonds but instead wired money to his own personal account. He was also accused of falsely representing himself as a qualified intermediary for a 1031 real estate exchange and then wiring millions of dollars from client asset sales to accounts he controlled.
Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod and Judges Priscilla Richman and Don R. Willett sat on the panel.
Pettit is represented by federal public defenders Kristin Kimmelman and Maureen Franco.
The federal government is represented by Zachary Richter and Christopher Mangels of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 24-50250.
Craving more Texas Lawbook litigation coverage? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at these stories you may have missed in the past few days.
Winter Storm Uri brought single-digit temperatures and freezing precipitation to Texas in February 2021. Power lines snapped. Natural gas and power generators went silent. Pipelines froze. At least 246 people died. Thousands and thousands more suffered serious medical injuries. In all, 31,600 Texans and businesses sued energy companies for gross negligence. But five years later, not a single case has made it to trial.
A lawsuit that began nearly seven years ago ended Thursday after jurors determined Apple did not infringe five wireless technology patents held by Optis Wireless Technology. Optis had been seeking between $400 million and $600 million in damages, according to court documents. Judge Gilstrap also entered a sua sponte order Thursday finding that Optis and its affiliated entities that were also plaintiffs in the case are “judicially estopped from asserting that they are entitled to recover pre-suit damages” from Apple.
A team of Porter Hedges attorneys secured a more than $57 million jury verdict for their client, Shintech Incorporated, earlier this week. The manufacturing company accused Olin Corporation of breaching its contract by refusing to provide the agreed-upon amount of vinyl chloride monomer.
In the latest edition of Asked & Answered, Mo Lovett Law’s founder discusses opening a new office in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and growing her law firm a year into opening. She also talked about mentorship and the state of the profession.
The very first jury trial in the Texas Business Court is underway in Houston. The dispute pits the lawyer Albert Theodore “Ted” Powers against three members of the Berry family, who, through their businesses, is one of the largest private employers in Corpus Christi. Its origins can be traced back to an idea Lawrence Berry had in 2018 to build a world-class crude export terminal outside of Corpus Christi that could receive oil from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale.
The opinion from the First Court of Appeals clarified what constitutes an “outside influence” on the jury. It came in a case where Harris County District Judge Sonya L. Aston presided over a jury trial and, post-verdict, heard a juror say she had explained to other jurors that when she worked as a paralegal at a “large, prestigious law firm” in downtown Houston, the attorneys there charged more than $1,000 an hour.