Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Six amicus briefs have been filed with the Fifth Circuit in the case where IBM is trying to undo a $1.6 billion judgment entered against it after a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Gray Miller. BMC had filed a cross appeal in the lawsuit but dropped that fight in April to “simplify and shorten the proceedings.”
A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit has asked the state’s high court to answer two certified questions that will determine if two flight attendants, Marvin Sanders and Matthew Sodrok, can proceed with their suit against Boeing over the alleged malfunction of a smoke detector on one of the company’s planes.
In an “exceedingly rare” move, as a dissenting justice noted, the case was not first decided by a three-justice panel before the en banc court considered it. The court’s May 18 divided decision generated two dissents and likely set the stage for an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Kinder Morgan gets a win at the Texas Supreme Court in a tax fight with a school district, a jury sides with the widow of a NASA astronaut in a probate dispute involving space artifacts, and a Houston company is accused of monopolizing an ERCOT savings program.
The Senate has now approved the House’s revisions to the bill that would form the new Fifteenth Court of Appeals for commercial cases. Once the two chambers of the Legislature sign the final version of the bill, the creation of that new court awaits only the governor’s signature.
Before long, that court’s justices will take office and its docket will begin to fill with cases. As a brand new institution, the Fifteenth Court will have no precedent of its own to apply in those cases. With apologies for the pun, that court will face an “unprecedented” situation.
The court unanimously determined that at this stage in proceedings USA Lending Group had presented enough evidence to avoid Winstead’s bid to have the lawsuit tossed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. Assuming without deciding that the state’s anti-SLAPP law applies to this case, the justices found that USA Lending should be allowed to proceed in the trial court with the suit accusing the firm of failing to request $1.2 million in damages in a motion for default judgment.
Legislation to create a new intermediate appellate court to hear cases involving state government and appeals from new business specialty courts advances as the legislative session starts to wind down.
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, the state of Texas turns to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher to defend it in a long-running lawsuit over the quality of foster care, minority investors in an energy company allege one of the world’s largest hedge funds breached its duties in a rushed $788 million sale, and the Texas Supreme Court clarifies the reach of arbitration provisions.
Nick Kennedy, a partner in the firm’s Dallas office, recently argued his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He sat for an interview with The Lawbook about the experience, the preparation and the possible ramifications of the court’s decision.
The ruling is the latest — but surely not the last — in an 11-year litigation war over the operation of a gold mine in Sinaloa, Mexico.
The International Association of Defense Counsel, the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, Airlines for America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Lawyers for Civil Justice all filed amicus briefs in support of FedEx last week. FedEx is fighting a $366 million jury verdict in favor of former employee Jennifer Harris.
The case went through two rounds of oral arguments at the state’s high court, saw the voluntary recusal of two justices and the appointment by the governor of two intermediate appellate justices to the case. The ruling will allow Texas to bring its lawsuit against the German automakers alleging they violated state environmental laws via the emissions-cheating software scandal perpetrated by the companies.
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