According to a time-stamped copy of a letter Harris County District Judge Ursula Hall sent to the First Court of Appeals Monday, she avoided by one hour and 44 minutes what the justices had threatened would be the “immediate initiation” of contempt proceedings for her lengthy delay in ruling on two pending motions in a foreclosure dispute. When the court issued a writ of mandamus to Judge Hall Sept. 25, she had failed to rule on a motion for summary judgment for three years, five months and 18 days.
Litigation Roundup: Paxton Back in Action, Sues Yelp; SEC Says Austin Promoter Duped Investors
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Ken Paxton returns to office and sues Yelp over disclaimers the company affixed to listings for “pregnancy resource centers,” the SEC accuses an Austin oil and gas promotor of defrauding investors out of $5 million and Dallas law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry is tapped to bring a trade secrets lawsuit for a financial technology client in Chicago.
Appellate Court Threatens Contempt Proceedings Against Harris County District Judge
Harris County Judge Ursula Hall has until 5 p.m. Monday to rule on a motion that has been pending before her in a foreclosure dispute for three years and five months or the First Court of Appeals has said it will initiate contempt proceedings.
Litigation Roundup: Hogan Lovells to Defend Against FTC’s Texas Anesthesiology Monopoly Suit, Houston Jury Awards Defendant $32.5M in Construction Dispute
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the former general counsel of the Houston Housing Authority has her qui tam False Claims Act suit partially revived by the Fifth Circuit, an allegedly undisclosed personal relationship between a magistrate judge and a plaintiff attorney who secured a $124.5 million award in her court gets a second look, and a former CEO of a software company loses his bid to keep a $20 million suit in Texas courts.
Houston Judge Orders Ethics Training, $525K Sanction Against 2 Attorneys
Harris County District Judge Elaine Palmer has ordered attorneys Michael D. Sydow and Chidi D. Anunobi to take 10 hours of legal ethics education classes each year for the next five years after finding they filed for a lawsuit for an improper purpose on behalf of their litigation management company client, Iron Oak. The lawsuit was brought in an attempt to collect $10 million from inventors Michael E. Porter and John T. Preston and their company Continuum Energy Technologies.
Litigation Roundup: Texas Co. Gets $37.5M in Patent Trial, Southwest Airlines Beats Back 2 Class Actions
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas finds a Chinese company infringed eight patents held by Texas-based Atlas Global Technologies, the Fifth Circuit rejects the University of North Texas’ bid to end a professor’s First Amendment retaliation claim and a fired Texas prison guard who represented himself on appeal prevails in a discrimination case.
La Michoacana Meat Market’s Quest to See Biz Partner’s Books Continues in Arbitration
The dispute between the largest Hispanic grocery store chain in Texas and the business partner that supplies its meat will be settled through arbitration after a failed attempt by La Michoacana to get a district court to grant it access to the books and records of Amigos Meat Distributors. Judge Tanya Garrison, who sent the case to arbitration, told the parties at a hearing last month “I feel like this is a fight between my kids in the backseat. ‘He touched me first.’ And they’re saying ‘nuh-uh.’”
Fifth Circuit to IBM in $1.6B BMC Appeal: What Do You Want Us to Do?
U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, who presided over a bench trial, determined in May 2022 that IBM committed fraud in a dispute involving IBM’s removal of BMC’s mainframe products from their largest mutual client, AT&T. The case was argued before the Fifth Circuit Sept. 5.
Litigation Roundup: Dallas Luxury Apartment Co. Sued over Mistaken Eviction, Fifth Circuit Revives False Arrest Claim Against Texas Police Chief
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the University of Houston gets a retaliation lawsuit tossed on appeal, a group of investors in a Dallas-area chain of hot chicken restaurants settles its suit with a hospitality group and the Fifth Circuit sides with the National Labor Relations Board in a suit involving fired plant workers.
Litigation Roundup: Wells Fargo Asks for Arbitration in Discrimination Class Action, Jerry Jones Assault Case to Proceed
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Southwest Airlines attorneys are denied a stay of a sanctions order that they undergo religious liberty training, the Texas Supreme Court rejects Jerry Jones’ request to end an assault suit brought by a woman he allegedly forcibly kissed at AT&T Stadium and the Fifth Circuit revives a suit against the Food and Drug Administration over tweets about ivermectin.