Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Mark Lanier, who hired Ken Starr to join his law firm in 2018, recalled helping his mentor navigate his departure from Baylor amid a scandal, Starr’s role as ‘principal architect’ of the firm’s appellate strategy in the $2.5 billion Johnson & Johnson talc powder case and other memories from their nearly 40-year relationship.
On appeal, Targa Channelview argued the award rested on a faulty interpretation of the contract between the parties related to a crude oil storage and processing facility. Both Vitol and Targa had an impressive list of legal leaders representing the companies on appeal.
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, a team from Bracewell gets a win for the John M. O’Quinn Foundation in a 12-year dispute with the famed lawyer’s former companion, Texas attorneys are named to take the lead in a multidistrict litigation over contaminated infant formula and the Fifth Circuit affirms $51 million in fees and costs for the Stanford Ponzi case receiver.
In a list of orders issued Friday morning, the Texas Supreme Court denied a request for rehearing that HouseCanary lodged on Aug. 4. The real estate analytics startup was asking the court to undo a Fourth Court of Appeals ruling that gave it an ultimatum: submit to a new trial or move for judgment on the jury’s $201 million award tied to a breach of contract claim.
Industry groups argue the burden of proof as to whether property damage is caused by a covered or uncovered cause has erroneously shifted to policyholders when it should be on the insurers. As hurricane season approaches its traditional peak in the state, the Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 21 in the dispute that could have major implications for insurance policyholders.
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, a team from Susman Godfrey obtained a patent infringement win against Ericsson, two Kilpatrick Townsend attorneys took another step toward ending a recruiter’s fee lawsuit, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a $3 million award in a trade secrets lawsuit between competing oil industry employment websites and Baylor College of Medicine won a $48 million Covid-19-related jury award.
Judges who have implemented the practice of allowing jurors to ask questions of witnesses via written submission say it makes deliberations more efficient and allows jurors to reach the correct result. But the majority of judges don't allow it, and Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap said that's for good reason.
Appellate partners with Alexander Dubose Jefferson, Beck Redden and Haynes and Boone told 180 attendees during a continuing legal education webcast Wednesday about four cases the Texas Supreme Court will hear this term and why they're important.
This week’s Litigation Roundup features a fight between the Houston Astros and Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar over about $462,000 in taxes assessed against the ball club, a $3.3 million jury win for the buyers of a North Dallas office complex and a second bite at the apple for a Louisiana federal judge who enjoined a Biden administration order pausing oil and gas lease sales.
In the five years since Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston region, courts have been wrangling the massive amount of litigation spawned by the storm, brought by property owners seeking damages for the flooding that in many instances took everything they had. Storm cleanup and later the COVID-19 pandemic caused some roadblocks to resolution, but time hasn’t run out for those still waiting to make a claim.
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