Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A 2003 tort reform law limits Honda’s liability because its ceiling-mounted detachable seatbelt system met federal safety regulations. The case presented novel questions about the interplay of state law and federal regulations. The large jury verdict was considered by some lawyers to be a so-called “nuclear verdict” ripe for reversal.
The Texas Supreme Court kept alive the lawsuit filed by Travis Central Appraisal District over a landfill’s slashed property valuation but returned the case to the district court on substantially narrowed grounds. The court sided with Texas Disposal System in removing the appraiser’s fair market value claim but will allow market value evidence to be heard. The tax dispute centers on an unusual property that also houses exotic animals and hosts private parties.
Two others with intermediate appellate court experience were named to the appellate court by Gov. Abbott, who also announced appointments to the new Austin business court division. The governor still must name judges for business court divisions in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. The Texas Lawbook's Janet Elliott has the details.
Answers to the governor’s questionnaire shed some light on the judicial philosophies of some 30 who have applied for the coming business trial and appellate courts. Generally, they like conservatives like Scalia and Thomas and shun SCOTUS decisions on Obamacare and the Chevron deference.
Editor’s note: This article was written in advance of the governor’s announcements Wednesday.
Litigators dominate the latest applications for the new business court judgeships, public records show. In the coming weeks, Gov. Greg Abbott will exercise his new power to select jurists to handle the new court’s docket of complex corporate governance and transactional disputes. A drafter of the legislation to create the specialized court system makes the case for ‘sit down’ lawyers to throw their names in the hat.
Justices determined that two adjacent chicken farms were a nuisance but said less-drastic remedies to abate the odors are warranted. Agricultural interests are closely following the appeal, which attracted prominent lawyers for Sanderson Farms and its growers.
The Texas Supreme Court rejected the state transportation department’s claim that it thought the large oaks and elms were in its right of way when it directed a contractor to have them cut down. Such a ruling would “eviscerate our constitutional bulwark against uncompensated takings,” the court said.
Justices decided the first of three cases that test cities’ immunity when officers were involved in vehicle crashes while responding to calls for service. The court dismissed a wrongful-death case filed by the family of a Houston bicyclist killed by a cop car speeding at night without emergency lights and sirens. The court found that the officer acted in good faith while responding to a suicide in progress call.
For more than three decades, reporter and lawyer Mary Flood walked the halls of state and federal courthouses in Houston, chronicling the victories and defeats of the city’s colorful legal lions. She used her quick wit and persistence to win sources, from those who cleaned the building to the powerful who sat high on the bench. Her investigative reporting forced the Hermann Hospital board to provide more charitable care and offered leads to federal agents investigating Enron’s implosion. Flood went from college dropout to Harvard-educated lawyer. When she reinvented herself as a media consultant for law firms, she became a rainmaker.
The court responded to a call by former justice Scott Brister to clarify standards for a “tag-along” transfer to the existing Salesforce MDL in Harris County. Such direction has been lacking in previous reviews of MDL transfers over the past 20 years, Brister says.
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