Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Supreme Court of Texas in two cases this month limited municipal immunity for cities engaged in discretionary activity. The court ruled in a third case that city officers must act within their legal authority for immunity to apply. The unanimous decisions are expected to impact pending cases, including a $19 million gas lease fight between the City of Dallas and Trinity East Energy.
The Supreme Court of Texas recently upheld a 55-cent-per-pack tax on the makers of discount cigarettes, finding the Legislature had a rational basis to distinguish between small manufacturers and Big Tobacco companies that settled with the state in 1998.
A $19 million mineral lease fight between the city of Dallas and Trinity East Energy could be impacted by a pair of appeals pending before the Texas Supreme Court that question a municipality’s immunity from breach of contract suits.
Major news organizations want the Supreme Court of Texas to maintain strong libel defense protections for journalists who report on government investigations. The media outlets, including The Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle, say journalists should be able to report on factual information obtained from government reports or official proceedings without fear of being sued for failure to include information not contained in the report and unknown to them.
A series of emails and phone calls from a Canadian company to Texas concerning a hotly contested stock purchase are the focus of arguments in a $100 million contract-interference dispute under consideration by the Texas Supreme Court. The justices are e court is weighing whether ERG Resources, a Houston independent oil and gas operator, has the right to proceed in Texas courts with its claims against its Canadian rival for assets in Colombia.
The Texas Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of a special tax the state started levying against small manufacturers of discount cigarettes in 2013. At the urging of Big Tobacco, the state instituted a $0.55 per pack charge to cigarette makers not involved in the $17.3 billion settlement in 1998. This story has all the details in the dispute.
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan enlisted David Baay, a partner and co-head of the energy litigation section of the firm's Houston office, to develop a mobile app specific to Texas. The app, called Texas openCourts, launched in late 2015 and allows users to locate state and federal courts, learn about the background of judges and access local federal court rules. “I wanted something that would be the most useful,” Baay said. “Quickly, court information came to mind.”
Half of Texas lawyers donate their services to needy clients, but it isn't enough, Justice Eva Guzman told a Texas Access to Justice luncheon Monday. The value of this work was estimated to be more than $500 million in 2013. Guzman and Chief Justice Nathan Hecht also presented three Texas legislators, state Reps. Todd Hunter, Morgan Meyer and Kenneth Sheets, with its Legislative Hero Award.
The legal battle between four Texas eye doctors and Wal-Mart has found its way to the Supreme Court of Texas over the issue of exemplary damages in private attorney general actions. The eventual decision by the state’s highest court could produce a precedent that lawyers claim would cause a surge in lawsuits seeking big-dollar damages under state laws usually reserved for regulatory enforcement by governmental authorities, such as the state attorney general. The lawyers are James Ho for WalMart and Russell Post for the eye docs.
A long and expensive dispute over whether Dallas trial lawyer Bill Brewer should be disqualified from a $60 million international lawsuit because his law firm and its Chilean co-counsel hired a former executive from the opposing side reached the state's highest court last week. Former Texas justice Harriet O'Neill and appellate specialists Nina Cortell squared off on whether the defendant's former CFO is a whistleblowing fact witness or a side-switching paralegal whose actions triggered disqualification.
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