Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Dr. Azul Shirazali Jaffer is being sued by Michelle Maestas in Fort Bend County district court for allegedly sexually assaulting her as she woke up in the recovery room in October 2022 following a breast augmentation procedure. A Houston appellate court this week agreed with the Fort Bend County district judge who declined to dismiss the suit in July 2023.
In an opinion issued March 20, a three-justice panel of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio determined Barbara C. Barnett will not have to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit where insurer Texas Medical Liability Trust argues it should not have to cover the cost of defending a fraud lawsuit Barnett filed against her former oncologist, Dr. David J. Friedman. The ruling reversed a Bexar County district judge’s ruling that Barnett could be deposed.
R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette makers learned Thursday that forum shopping does not always pay off. The tobacco companies strategically filed a constitutional challenge to the FDA's newest cigarette warning labels in East Texas believing the jurisdiction to be favorable, especially on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which the companies viewed as pro-commercial free speech and increasingly distrustful of federal government regulation and overreach. But they figured wrong.
The justices had consolidated the oral arguments in two cases that involve disputes in Mills and Wilbarger counties. The cases are part of a large group of lawsuits filed by Oncor to fight the valuation of its transmission lines in 13 counties. The utility company argues incorrect data provided by a private appraisal firm to determine 2019 values led to a $7 million overvaluation of its property and a "windfall" of taxes for the local governments.
In a case that presented the court with an issue of first impression, the panel wrote that it would “decline to open that Pandora’s box of frivolous appeals” by exercising jurisdiction in the case. Christopher Novinger had unsuccessfully tried to undo the gag order provision he agreed to in July 2022, and failed again Tuesday.
The Texas Supreme Court must decide two things: Is the new protocol for setting prices in an electricity emergency a “competition rule” under the Public Utility Regulatory Act? And if it is, did the Public Utility Commission of Texas exceed its authority under either PURA or the Administrative Procedure Act in approving it?
The court responded to a call by former justice Scott Brister to clarify standards for a “tag-along” transfer to the existing Salesforce MDL in Harris County. Such direction has been lacking in previous reviews of MDL transfers over the past 20 years, Brister says.
This week a three-justice panel of the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas ordered Dallas County District Judge Staci Williams to hold a hearing on a motion to dismiss pending before her that was brought under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. The state’s anti-SLAPP law requires that a hearing on a motion to dismiss take place within 60 days, but Judge Williams’ staff told the relators in this case — who tried six times to get a hearing set — that, while it does its best to accommodate requests for hearings, its docket is “jammed packed” and “there is no way to SQUEEZE your motion into the requested docket.”
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