During oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court Wednesday, Justice Jimmy Blacklock expressed some hesitation about the ramifications of adopting an argument from Walmart that it is a third-party beneficiary of a contract between the government and Xerox over the administration of a food-assistance program for low-income individuals.
Litigation Roundup: Insurer Sued Over Underpaid Ransomware Attack Claim, FC Dallas Hit With Ticket-Sales Patent Suit, Total and Kinder Morgan Head Back to Trial Court in Insurance Dispute
In this week’s edition of Litigation Roundup, a team from Vinson & Elkins gets a win for the Sabine-Neches Navigation District in a case of first impression involving the Water Resources Development Act, a bus manufacturer is hit with a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of a 6-year-old girl and a Taiwanese pipe maker escapes a wrongful death suit.
At SCOTX, A Medical Researcher Fights to Keep UT from Rescinding Her Degree; Call It a Daavid ja Goljat Struggle
For 10 years Suvi Orr has lived with the threat that the University of Texas will revoke her Ph.D. in organic chemistry. For 10 years she’s been fighting back in court against the university’s complaint that she was academically dishonest, based first on a scientific journal published years after graduated related to her dissertation research to create a synthetic compound for cancer treatment. Then on her dissertation research itself. She says she did nothing wrong.
Her lawyers say she’s been denied due process and argue UT cannot void a degree long after a student has graduated, not without full due process in a court hearing that she has never had.
But Tuesday, 14 years after her graduation, 14 years after the start of a pharmaceutical-research career and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and patent applications that came with it, the Texas Supreme Court will decide whether UT has the power to do what it wants to do and whether the disciplinary process affords Suvi Orr procedural protection.
Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Social Media Law Against Facebook, Twitter
A federal appeals court panel, in a 2-1 decision Friday, upheld the Texas law that prohibited large social media companies, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, from deleting a user’s comments and content even if the media platforms believe the content is harmful or extreme. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled the 2021 law, known as HB 20, “chills no speech whatsoever. To the extent it chills anything, it chills censorship.” The dissent said the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word.
Texas Supreme Court Term Preview: Key Business Cases
Business cases involving noneconomic damages, force majeure, TCPA, arbitration, class actions, oil and gas, insurance and ERCOT are on the docket at the Texas Supreme Court this term.
HouseCanary, Amrock $740M Trade Secrets Case Heads Back to Trial Court
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.
Texas Supreme Court Will Hear ‘Concurrent Causation’ Insurance Dispute
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.
Former SCOTX Justice Eva Guzman Jumps to Houston Litigation Firm
Eva Guzman, who launched a failed bid to unseat Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after resigning from the court last summer, will start at Wright Close & Barger on Sept. 12.