Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
April Farris, a former Yetter Coleman appellate partner and state Assistant Solicitor General, is settling into her first workweek as a justice on Houston’s Court of Appeals. Farris says she’s delighted to return to public service and carry out the oath she took on New Year’s Day.
Alfred Dewayne Brown’s lawyers said a decision released Friday by the Supreme Court of Texas will allow future innocent Texans who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes to have “a much easier time getting compensated from the state.”
“We got justice for one man but in the process we’ve set a precedent that’s going to help bring justice to a lot of women and men in the future who might otherwise not be able to get it,” said Susman Godfrey partner Neal Manne, one of Brown’s lawyers.
Citing three recent Texas Supreme Court decisions declaring the sanctity of written contracts and the deficiency of extra contractual statements, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas has reversed a $98 million fraud judgement against BBVA Compass Bank.
An appeals court has declined to revive a lawsuit that claimed Five Point Energy usurped a $460 million corporate opportunity from a portfolio member, but the ruling does more than provide a nine-figure sigh of relief for the Houston private equity firm. Natalie Posgate explains.
For the second time in less than a week, Texas has lost an “original jurisdiction” case before the U.S. Supreme Court, giving new gravitas to the nickname Lone Star State. Tony Mauro has the details.
The ruling in favor of Baylor Miraca Genetics Laboratories pours out a 2018 verdict for former company executive Brandon Perthius who had claimed commissions on sales made after he left for a competitor. The Lawbook's Bruce Tomaso has the details.
Thomas Reavley preached his first sermon against racial discrimination in East Texas in 1935. He was a Naval officer in the South Pacific during World War II. He was a prosecutor in Dallas. Governor John Connally appointed him to a Travis County district court and later to the Texas Supreme Court. President Jimmy Carter appointed Reavley to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979. Judge Reavley, who was believed to be the oldest serving federal appellate judge in the U.S., died Tuesday in Houston. He was 99.
Doubling down on a ruling earlier this year that intent governs whether employee lawsuits are excepted from the restrictions of the Texas Workman’s Compensation Act, a unanimous SCOTX tossed a $43.5 million jury verdict for a worker who lost a leg in what the court itself described as “an avoidable, unjustifiable, and grossly negligent accident.” Janet Elliott explains.
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