Newly-elected judges on the Texas courts of appeals may soon revisit a firmly rooted – albeit faded – distinction between factual and legal sufficiency as they grapples with their differences with pro-business justices on the Texas Supreme Court. Specifically, courts of appeals may be able to limit state Supreme Court review by deciding cases based on factual sufficiency of the evidence. The Texas Lawbook has details.
TX Supremes Weigh Reliance on Contracts v. Texas Law
Mercedes-Benz is asking the Texas Supreme Court to declare that signed written contracts are sacrosanct and override all extra-contractual statements, even if those extra-contractual promises amount to felony fraud, directly contradict Legislative policy and cause severe financial harm to a Texas business. The Texas Lawbook has details.
SCOTX Mulls: ‘When Is An Investigation Not An Investigation?’
SCOTX heard oral arguments last week over efforts by the Dallas Morning News to dismiss a libel suit against them. Owners of a now-defunct compounding pharmacy claim a 2016 article in The News falsely suggested they were under federal investigation. That claim of falsehood is complicated by a federal raid on their offices the very day they argued in court.
Removal to Federal Court After the November 2018 Elections: More Incentive, But Less Receptiveness?
Could the swing of Texas’s big courts of appeals to Democratic majorities lead to more removals from state to federal court? Despite the hurdles federal courts have raised to removal jurisdiction over the years, the addition of five new judges to the Fifth Circuit certainly creates an opening.
A Study of Three Sentences: Potential New Perspectives by the Texas Courts of Appeal
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis said “questions of jurisdiction are questions of power.” That observation provides a useful lens to examine how three sentences from recent opinions by the Dallas Court of Appeals involve questions of power, and how they may illustrate areas where the newly-constituted Texas appellate courts may take new approaches.
Substantive Changes Coming to Courts of Appeals in Austin, Dallas & Houston
The unprecedented election last week of 20 Democratic candidates to the state courts of appeals in Austin, Dallas and Houston will have an almost immediate and substantive impact on civil litigation and issues such as enforcement of arbitration clauses, excessive use of Anti-SLAPP laws and deference to juries in large-dollar plaintiff’s verdicts.
UPDATED: Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson Retires
Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson, a conservative voice on the court for the past 13 years, has announced that he is retiring at the end of the year. Mark Curriden has the details.