Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a mother from the Bronx sues American Airlines in federal court in Fort Worth over the in-flight death of her 14-year-old son, USAA is accused in a proposed class action lawsuit of covertly operating a two-tier benefits system and a divided ruling from the state’s court of last resort for criminal cases makes a surprise appearance in this civil courts-focused article.
Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, writing for a unanimous court, explained in a 21-page ruling that in so-called “wrongful pregnancy” cases only a narrow category of damages is available: those costs incurred during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. But in this case, Grissel Velasco was seeking to recover a much broader category of damages — including the costs of rearing her daughter, mental anguish, and physical pain and suffering.
Erica Radcliffe and First Reserve teamed up with Vinson & Elkins in a landmark case to convince the courts that investors should not be held liable for the damages under state law. They prevailed and the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling provides a roadmap for other investors on how they can protect themselves from liability.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook have named Radcliffe, First Reserve and its outside counsel at Vinson & Elkins as one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
Jeffrey Limmer, 46, an associate at Lewis Brisbois, died May 4 after being shot multiple times after trying to intervene in a dispute between a customer and an employee at McDonald’s. The firm has said it will establish a memorial scholarship at his alma mater, South Texas College of Law.
Michael Maeker had been a registered financial advisor for 26 years when he was fired by Fidelity Investments. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday, Maeker alleges Fidelity fired him after he raised concerns that the company was violating securities laws by pressuring advisors to invest client funds in a way that was more beneficial to the company’s bottom line than it was to the clients’.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a fiery opinion taking to task the city of Houston and its attorneys who have argued a Good Samaritan’s lawsuit against two police officers should be dismissed.
Forum Energy Technologies General Counsel John Ivascu remembers the moment outside counsel from Yetter Coleman, whom he had hired to defend against patent infringement claims, let him know they had found something that would likely change the outcome of the case.
“It was fairly early in the case that we discovered it … and it really kind of changed the path of the case,” he told The Texas Lawbook.
The Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook have named Ivascu and outside counsel Yetter Coleman as one of three finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller got it wrong when he handed down a massive $1.6 billion judgment against International Business Machines for breach and fraud in a lawsuit against Houston-based BMC Software.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, the Fifth Circuit undoes class certification in an investor suit against Anadarko, Roku beats back a $318 million patent infringement claim in Waco, and a Houston appellate court brings an end to a heart surgeon’s defamation lawsuit against ProPublica and the Houston Chronicle.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a man who alleges he was shorted two ounces of beer by Cinemark files a class action lawsuit against the movie chain, an East Texas jury hits Samsung with a $142 million patent infringement verdict in a damages redo trial, and a new SEC trading surveillance initiative draws a constitutional challenge.
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