Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Texas Supreme Court Friday ended an eight-year legal battle between Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners over a proposed partnership in a pipeline project. In a unanimous opinion, the court effectively wiped out a $535 million judgment, saying the two companies never fully executed their partnership agreement in the first place.
It began as a boardroom dispute then morphed into a legal feud involving Carl Icahn. But the much-anticipated trial between Cheniere Energy and its founder Charif Souki, ended before it began Thursday when the parties announced they'd reached a walkaway agreement. Natalie Posgate reports.
It's styled as a simple contract dispute. But the upcoming courtroom fray between Charif Souki and Cheniere Energy, the company he founded, is a multi-layered conflict between a well-known entrepreneur and a well-known corporate raider.
Not only does the ruling ban a former sales executive for Merritt Hawkins and Associates from conducting business in five states; it also increases the likelihood for MHA to recover damages in the trial court. Natalie Posgate explains.
Pier 1 endured changes in style, changes in market, changes in judges and changes in its legal leadership to beat back stockholder charges of securities fraud in epic fashion. And as a result they are finalists for Litigation of the Year in the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
But in addition to those challenges, the company is now also coping with the untimely death of its general counsel.When royalty owners sue oil and gas producers in Oklahoma, you play by Oklahoma rules. Because of those rules, the results can be ugly. But when Range Resources was sued in Oklahoma, GC David Poole decided to fight. And the results of that decision are now nominated for Litigation of the Year in the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel ruled that a Dallas trial court did not have personal jurisdiction over British chemicals company Venator Materials, four of its executives and four underwriters of Venator’s 2017 IPO, who are all nonresident defendants in the litigation.
In a unanimous verdict, a Dallas federal jury found Thomas Selgas and John O. Green guilty for one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government. Separately, jurors found Selgas guilty of tax evasion for tax years 1998-2002 and 2005.
The opening of a federal tax evasion conspiracy trial for an Athens couple and their lawyer featured references to Charles Dickens, IOLTA, a house purchased with gold coins and the Biblical role of women. Natalie Posgate was there.
A federal appeals court put plaintiffs’ lawyers on a monetary diet Monday when it affirmed a lower court’s decision to toss a lawsuit that claimed Dr Pepper/Seven Up falsely led consumers in California to believe that Diet Dr Pepper could help them lose weight. The opinion also provided an unexpected vocabulary lesson on the word 'diet.' Natalie Posgate explains.
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