In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher secures a big win on appeal for a major Brazilian mining company that was facing a $500 million lawsuit in Nueces County, and a team from King & Spalding beats back class certification in a 6,000-plaintiff antitrust case playing out in federal court in Illinois.
Also, the Texas State Securities Board announced Monday it has appointed a new securities commissioner in Jeramy E. Heintz, who previously served as director of enforcement and succeeds Travis J. Iles as the ninth commissioner in the agency’s history. Iles recently retired after nearly a decade in the position.
“It is a tremendous honor to be appointed Securities Commissioner and to lead an agency with such a proud history of protecting Texas investors,” Heintz said in a statement. “For more than seven decades, the Texas State Securities Board has earned a national reputation for excellence, integrity, and effective regulation. I look forward to building upon that legacy, and the outstanding work of Travis Iles, while continuing to support responsible capital formation, embrace technological innovation, and ensure that Texas remains a leader in both investor protection and financial opportunity.”
Heintz has been with the TSSB since December 2013. He is a graduate of Sam Houston State University and the Oklahoma City University School of Law.
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.
Tarrant County District Court
Mansfield Massage Business Sued by Customer Who Alleges Sexual Assault
Guerra LLP is representing a North Texas woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted at A++ Foot Spa & Massage on Highway 287 during a March visit for a full-body massage.
The plaintiff in the case, identified only as M.V., filed suit against the company, the employee she alleges assaulted her and a handful of other defendants on June 12, seeking more than $1 million in damages. According to the lawsuit, the employee who assaulted M.V., Baoshen “Kevin” Wang, has been criminally charged.
“This is not the first allegation of sexual misconduct at A++ Foot Spa & Massage,” the lawsuit begins. “This is also not even the first time the property owners and managers of the shopping center in which A++ Foot Spa & Massage operates have been sued for claims of sexual assault arising at A++ Foot Spa & Massage. This case presents an unbelievable picture of negligence in property ownership and management that has put Texas residents like plaintiff at risk.”
California-based ACF Property Management is another defendant in the case, alongside B&F Reflexology Investment and Junying Li.
M.V. alleges she immediately reported the sexual assault to an employee at the front desk, who she said “shrugged off” the incident and “insisted” that M.V. “still pay for her services, despite actual awareness that M.V. had just been sexually assaulted by defendant Wang.”
The lawsuit alleges there were at least four prior sexual assaults at the business between February 2021 and October 2025.
It was not immediately clear Monday to which judge the case had been assigned.
The plaintiff is represented by Meredith D. Stratigopoulos, Francisco Guerra IV and Chloe R. Shrode of Guerra LLP and JoDee Neil of Neil Now Legal.
“This case is about a major real estate player who has allowed a business with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct to continue to operate on their premises, putting Texas residents at risk,” Stratigopoulos said in a statement. “Our client walked into what should have been a safe massage and was instead subjected to a horrible assault.”
Counsel for the defendants had not filed an appearance as of Monday.
The case number is 067-378797-26.
Harris County District Court
Yetter Coleman Gets $17.5M Final Judgment in ‘Bait-and-Switch’ Case
A judge in Harris County last week entered final judgment in favor of AEP Excluded AssetCo and Advance Energy Partners in a breach of contract and fraudulent inducement case that took almost exactly three years to resolve.
In May, a jury that heard three weeks of testimony unanimously sided with AEP and Advance Energy Partners, agreeing Bellanergy owed the companies $10.9 million in damages for failing to deliver a premium, name-brand pipe product pursuant to a contract and instead supplying the company with what it called a low-cost knockoff.
AEP filed suit in June 2023, according to court records, in the dispute that stems from an agreement to purchase about 490,000 feet of oilfield casing. AEP alleged it contracted with Bellanergy to purchase patented GB Connections products for $18.5 million and paid more than $10 million in deposits before it realized Bellanergy was allegedly supplying it with a Chinese imitation product and rejected the delivery.
The lawyers for the plaintiff, from Yetter Coleman, told jurors the case represented a classic bait-and-switch and argued the scheme gave Bellanergy an opportunity to pocket an additional $7 million.
Bellanergy lodged counterclaims, seeking $8.6 million in damages, alleging AEP knew it wasn’t contracted to receive GB Connections-branded products based on the market price for that product versus the price it was quoted.
“Defendant would show that, to the extent the purchase documents do not accurately reflect the parties’ agreement to order materials and connectors manufactured in China without connectors manufactured by GB Connections, LLC, there was a mutual mistake,” the petition reads.
The jury rejected the counterclaims.
Harris County District Judge Erica Hughes presided over the case. Judge Hughes’ final judgment awarded Yetter Coleman about $4.1 million in attorney fees, $555,282 in litigation costs and conditional attorney fees of as much as $527,000, should the case be appealed all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. The judgment also includes $2.1 million in prejudgment interest, and post-judgment interest of 6.75 percent.
AEP is represented by Tim McConn, Grant Martinez, Reagan Simpson, Katie Tipper-McWhorter, Jane Ray, Doug Griffith and Alexander Ades of Yetter Coleman.
“This verdict and final judgment send a clear message that companies cannot charge for a premium product while secretly supplying something else,” McConn said in a news release issued after final judgment was entered. “Our clients acted promptly when they discovered the substitution and stood firm in enforcing their contractual rights. The jury’s unanimous verdict and the court’s final judgment vindicate that decision.”
Bellanergy is represented by Samuel J. Saldivar, Mauricio “Reece” Rondon, Jeffrey T. Bench and George H. Lugrin IV of Hall Maines Lugrin, B. Eliot New of Greenspoon Marder and E. Marie Jamison of Wright Close Barger & Guzman.
The case number is 2023-36617.
Thirteenth Court of Appeals, Corpus Christi
Panel Reverses Trial Judge, Boots $500M Mining Dispute Out of Texas
An iron mining dispute between Brazilian mining companies Itabiriçu Nacional de Pesquisa Mineral Ltda. and Vale S.A. does not belong in Texas courts, an intermediate appellate panel recently determined.
Itabiriçu sued Vale in Nueces County in October 2023, alleging the company wrongfully appropriated tons of low-grade iron ore that was mined in Brazil, shipped it to a factory in Corpus Christi and sold it in Texas. Vale, which is the world’s largest producer of iron ore, filed a special appearance, arguing Texas courts have no jurisdiction over the dispute.
In October 2025, the trial judge disagreed and denied the special appearance, finding in part that the court could exercise specific personal jurisdiction over Vale because the company had targeted Texas “through a sustained, multi-year course of conduct with its codefendants, including direct negotiations, repeated visits and the execution of contracts specifically to serve the Texas market.”
Vale argued on appeal that even if it did purposefully avail itself of doing business in Texas, there is no jurisdiction for Texas courts to hear the dispute because Itabiriçu’s claims don’t have a substantial connection to Vale’s activities in Texas.
“On this point, we agree,” the panel wrote, explaining there was not a substantial connection between Vale’s contacts with Texas “and the operative facts of Itabiriçu’s claims.”
“Instead, based on the facts alleged in Itabiriçu’s pleadings, a trial on Itabiriçu’s conversion claim would focus predominantly — if not exclusively — on Vale’s activities in Brazil,” the panel wrote.
Justices Ysmael D. Fonseca, Lionel Aron Peña Jr. and Jon West sat on the panel.
Vale is represented by Christopher Joralemon, David Kusnetz, Sydney Scott, Brad Hubbard, Benjamin D. Wilson, Michael Klurfeld, Jack DiSorbo, Arjun Ogale, Hayato Watanabe, John Ito, Warren Bloom, Jon Greenberg and Michelle Gery of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Itabiriçu is represented by Brandy Wingate Voss of Edinburg, Raymond. L. Thomas of McAllen, John T. Flood of Corpus Christ and Michael Lynn, Michael Hurst, Chloe Teeter and Kristopher Ruiz of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann.
The case number is 13-25-00526-CV.
Southern District of Texas
Feds Say Clinic Owner Orchestrated $906M Healthcare Fraud
A woman was arrested in Houston Monday, four days after federal officials accused her in a criminal indictment of targeting terminally ill, elderly Medicare beneficiaries for medically unnecessary treatments that were then charged to the government.
Over a three-year period ending in April, the government alleges Marizel Yukee and her coconspirators submitted more than $906 million in false claims to Medicare and Tricare for the treatments — a specialized treatment for slow-healing wounds called amniotic wound allografts — in exchange for receiving kickbacks and bribes from distributors of the treatment.
The government paid out more than $297 million on the claims, according to the indictment, and Yukee “personally profited tens of millions of dollars from the fraud scheme.” The indictment alleges Yukee used the funds to pay for expensive vehicles, including a Ferrari 296 GTS and a Cadillac Escalade, a Bulgari necklace valued at more than $800,000, a luxury home in Hawaii and the construction of a $4.6 million beach resort in the Philippines.
Yukee is a nurse practitioner who owns and operates Wound Medic, My BestHealth First, AllCare Mobile Wound Treatment and Oracle Wound Treatment. Wound Medic has locations in the Houston suburbs of Manvel and Pearland, while the other clinics operated in Nevada, California and Hawaii, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges Yukee conspired with three unnamed companies that distributed allografts that were based in Puerto Rico, New Jersey and Nevada.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Nicholas J. Ganjei.
The case is being prosecuted by Adam Tisdall of the Department of Justice.
Counsel for Yukee had not filed an appearance as of Monday.
The case number is 4:26-cr-00370.
Western District of Texas
Man Accused in ‘Queen of Mobile Homes’ Fraud Hit with Default Judgment
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced it had secured a final default judgment against a man who allegedly acted as a third-party salesperson in a fraudulent real estate investment scheme involving mobile homes.
Santos Kidd, 57, who formerly lived in Honolulu but has relocated to the Philippines, was one of four defendants named in an SEC civil complaint filed in May 2023 against the so-called “Queen of Mobile Homes,” Chimene Van Gundy, and her company, Outstanding Real Estate Solutions. The government alleged that Van Gundy and her co-defendants, including Kidd, had raised about $18.5 million from at least 600 investors who believed their money was being used to purchase, refurbish and sell mobile homes between June 2018 and November 2021 by promising guaranteed returns of 15 to 20 percent annually.
Kidd allegedly served as a salesperson, distributing offering materials and making investor presentations about ORES to potential victims. Kidd allegedly told potential investors he did not receive commissions for his sales of ORES investments and encouraged some investors to apply for home equity lines of credit to fund their investments.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery entered final judgment in the case June 1, ordering Kidd to pay disgorgement and a civil penalty totaling about $607,800.
Counsel information for Kidd wasn’t available Monday.
The SEC is represented by its own Matthew J. Gulde in Fort Worth.
The case number is 5:23-cv-00700.
Northern District of Texas
SEC, Dallas Man Settle Insider Trading Claims
A 75-year-old Dallas County resident and the SEC have reached an agreement bringing an end to litigation accusing the man of insider trading.
Bruce Cameron Conway was accused in a civil complaint filed in August of using insider knowledge to buy shares of Cancer Genetics common stock, which was then a publicly traded company, ahead of a planned merger in July 2020.
“Conway purchased the stock on the basis of material nonpublic information obtained as part of his investment into a privately-held biotechnology company that planned to merge with [Cancer Genetics],” the complaint reads.
The merger was announced publicly in August 2020, according to the complaint. While the privately held company is not named in court documents, an SEC announcement from Aug. 24, 2020, states Cancer Genetics and StemoniX had entered into a definitive merger agreement.
After the announcement, Cancer Genetics stock rose 215 percent, according to the government. Conway, who did not admit to any allegations by agreeing to the final judgment in the case, will pay disgorgement and penalties totaling about $240,600.
U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer entered final judgment in the case June 16.
Conway is represented by S. Michael McColloch and Karen Cook of Dallas.
The SEC is represented by John Dwyer, Jason Rose and Jodanna Hawkins.
The case number is 3:25-cv-02101.
Northern District of Illinois
Tenet, United Surgical Partners Beat Class Cert in Antitrust Case
A group of 6,000 plaintiffs bringing antitrust claims against Surgical Care Affiliates, DaVita Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corporation and its subsidiaries, United Surgical Partners International and United Surgical Partners Holdings, will not be allowed to proceed with their suit as a class action, a federal judge recently determined.
The plaintiffs, whose alleged damages could top $2.3 billion, have argued the healthcare companies violated antitrust laws by agreeing not to solicit senior-level employees from one another. In a 48-page memorandum opinion and order issued June 10, U.S. District Judge Sunil R. Harjani wrote that the plaintiffs “have failed to demonstrate, by a preponderance of the evidence, that common questions will predominate over the individualized questions.”
She noted that the plaintiffs have varied “operational roles” and held jobs with the defendants in information technology, real estate, marketing and communications, finance, accounting and tax and clinical research.
“The court finds that plaintiffs have failed to show predominance of common issues to assess antitrust impact and damages, including wage suppression and classwide impact,” the judge wrote.
The court also found the plaintiffs failed to show there was a common method for proving classwide damages.
The plaintiffs are represented by Dean M. Harvey, Lin Y. Chan, Sarah D. Zandi, Jessica A. Moldovan and Emily Harwell of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Linda P. Nussbaum of Nussbaum Law Group, Michael L. Roberts, Karen Halbert, Sarah DeLoach, Kelly Rinehart and Erich P. Schork of Roberts Law Firm and Joseph R. Saveri, Ronnie Spiegel, Cardio Zirpoli, David Seidel and William Guardado of Joseph Saveri Law Firm.
Tenet and its affiliates are represented by Veronica Moyé, Lazar P. Raynal, Emily Shoemaker Newton, Matthew H. Dawson, Julianne Lee Duran, Diana Liu, Lauren Smith, Connor Brewer and Jay Paolillo of King & Spalding.
Davita is represented by J. Clayton Everett Jr., Kenneth Kliebard, Molly Lane, Nathan Shapiro, Staci M. Holthus and John C. Dodds of Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
Surgical Care Affiliates is represented by Amy Manning, Andrew Talbot, Angelo Russo, Christina M. Egan, Christopher Karamanos, Joshua Wade, Samuel Tarry Jr., Sarah Zielinski and Amy Gilbert of McGuireWoods.
The case number is 1:21-cv-00305.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Panel: Judge Was ‘More Demanding Than Texas Law Requires’
An appellate panel recently held that U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge was “more demanding than Texas law requires” when he found the plaintiffs in a lawsuit had been insufficiently diligent in effecting service of the suit and granted a motion to dismiss.
In a 14-page opinion issued Thursday, a three-judge panel revived a lawsuit Glenn and Rhonda Larkins brought against S.D.P. Manufacturing. Glenn Larkins was working on a defective transformer, according to the opinion, when “a small derrick tipped over and injured him.” The derrick was manufactured by S.D.P.
The couple filed suit on the last day before the statute of limitations expired and then set about trying to serve the lawsuit, but Judge Eskridge did not think the effort was diligent enough to avoid dismissal of the suit.
“The court faulted plaintiffs for waiting three days to forward their service citations to a process server,” the opinion explains. “It questioned why plaintiffs waited several weeks before following up with the process server. And it noted that, after the process server expressed confusion over defendants’ addresses, plaintiffs took several more days to clarify the service instructions.”
Judge James C. Ho authored the panel’s opinion, joined by Judges Don R. Willett and Leslie H. Southwick. Judge Ho wrote that “Texas law requires ordinary diligence — not the highest degree of diligence.”
The panel reversed the dismissal and sent the case back to Judge Eskridge but noted “plaintiffs may or may not ultimately prove diligence.”
“To be sure, a plaintiff may not hand citations to a process server and forget about the case. Plaintiffs remain responsible for service — no matter how occupied their attorneys may be on other matters,” Judge Ho wrote. “But on this record, plaintiffs’ service efforts and explanations were not so inadequate that lack of diligence could be found as a matter of law.”
The Larkinses are represented by David Daniel Jr. of Patrick Daniel Law, Michael Gross of St. Louis, Missouri, and Joseph Yeckel of Yeckel Law Firm.
SDP is represented by Russell Hollenbeck and Anne Doda of Wright Close Barger & Guzman and Lauren Parker of Smith Parker Elliott.
The case number is 24-20413.
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.
An Eastern District of Texas jury in Marshall swatted Verizon Wireless with a $190 million verdict for infringement of a patent owned by Aspen Networks, a California technology company. The case is one of three such cases alleging the unauthorized use of Aspen’s system to connect cellular phone calls in-progress between cell and Wi-Fi systems. The other two cases involving AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA are still pending.
Two new federal judges with connections to The Valley will be taking the bench in Texas soon, after the Senate Judiciary Committee gave approval to President Donald Trump’s nominees for the roles in the Southern District of Texas.
For more than five decades, Douglas Lang has been a staple of the Texas appellate law community, including 16 years as a justice on the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas. Last week, Lang joined Dallas-based Carrington Coleman as senior counsel after more than four years at Thompson Coburn.
In the latest edition of Asked & Answered, FBFK’s Solomon Wisenberg talks about how he got involved in the Whitewater-Lewinsky investigation and what trends he is seeing in his white collar criminal defense practice. While the Texan has spent the majority of his career in Washington, D.C., he returned home to the Lone Star state a few years ago and joined FBFK in December.
An error in the jury charge means Union Pacific Railroad Company will be getting a new trial in a lawsuit brought by a woman who drunkenly fell asleep on the tracks in a seated position and sued the company for her injuries. A jury had awarded $557.1 million in damages, the third largest handed out by a Texas jury in 2023, though final judgment in the case was about $73.4 million.
After a nine-year legal battle, the city of Quitman has acknowledged the hardships faced by Terry Bevill, a former police captain who was fired and later arrested for aggravated perjury after signing a 2017 affidavit stating he didn’t believe a coworker could receive a fair trial in Wood County. Dallas attorney Laura Benitez Geisler agreed to represent Bevill after hearing his story.