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Appellate

SCOTX Greenlights Degree Revocation by Public Universities

The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated cases in September where two former students argued their alma maters had denied due process and acted outside the scope of their authority in rescinding their doctorate degrees years after graduation. The majority of the Texas Supreme Court held that despite scant precedent, the law allows universities to take that action regardless of when the alleged academic misconduct underpinning the decision is discovered.

Lawmakers Advance 15th Court of Appeals Bill

In the face of varied and robust opposition to the proposal to create a new, statewide appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction over disputes involving the state or a state agency, lawmakers last week voted to send the bill to the full senate for a vote. Texas for Lawsuit Reform has championed the bill as an opportunity to establish a court with specialized expertise to hear matters of statewide importance.

PUC Appeals Court Decision Striking Down $9K Electric Rates During Winter Storm Uri

The Public Utility Commission of Texas claims that a decision issued 11 days ago by a Texas appeals court declaring that the emergency pricing orders issued by the agency in 2021 during Winter Storm Uri were unlawful needs to be immediately reversed because it “has thrown Texas’s electricity and associated markets into confusion.”

Lawyers for the PUC filed an official petition for review with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday arguing that the Third Court of Appeals in Austin “had no jurisdiction to validate or invalidate already-expired orders.”

Texas Justices Mull TCPA’s Reach in Winstead Malpractice Suit

The state’s high court will have to decide if the filing of an allegedly deficient motion for default judgment is a “communication” as Winstead argues, which would end USA Lending’s lawsuit, or if USA Lending is correct that the basis of its suit is the failure to communicate. The case implicates the Texas Citizens Participation Act and asks whether it applies in legal malpractice suits.

Pro Se Plaintiff Whiffs at Fifth Circuit in Case Against MLB

Former professional baseball player and sports nutrition vendor Neiman Nix lost his appeal of a case he filed in Texas against Major League Baseball — arguing that the league’s ban of a growth hormone discriminated against his business selling products that included it. It’s a case he’d filed, and lost, elsewhere. And that was the problem, the Fifth Circuit said.

Lack of Evidence Dooms Farmers’ Spray-Drift Suit

Friday morning the Texas Supreme Court determined that Robert Cox and a group of nine other cotton farmers presented insufficient evidence to proceed with their lawsuit alleging Helena Chemical Company’s negligent aerial application of Sendero damaged their crops. A trial court had tossed the suit on summary judgment, but the Eastland Court of Appeals partially revived it, teeing up the high court battle.

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