Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
(May 31) – The Texas Supreme Court tried to simplify its earlier rulings on oil and gas titles with a remarkably simple principle: a new lease supplants an old lease unless the new lease says it doesn’t. The ruling is bad news for TRO-X L.P., who sought to collect from Anadarko on a “back-in” option in a lease long-since transferred. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
The 25-page opinion, written by Justice Jason Boatright, rejected all 15 issues raised on appeal by the Choctaw, including their argument that federal law should preempt state common-law claims involving a federally-licensed motor carrier.
After nearly two years of study, a Texas Supreme Court task force has recommended that the state adopt the Universal Bar Exam, an exam that essentially qualifies lawyers to practice
A 2010 column in The Dallas Morning News may have been “callous,” may have left out key facts and may have even portrayed a North Texas family of being deceptive about the death of their teen-aged son, but the article was an “opinion” piece that was “literally true” and thus not a breach of defamation laws in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously.
© 2018 The Texas Lawbook. By Natalie Posgate (May 4) – A Houston appellate court has tossed out a $17 million jury negligence verdict against subsidiary of Baylor University’s general
The Texas Supreme Court tossed out a $416,000 jury verdict against Oncor Electric citing the failure of the plaintiff, Chaparral Energy, to take its initial complaint to the Public Utility Commission. The court ruled that PUC's "pervasive regulatory scheme" gives it the exclusive jurisdiction to resolve disputes over such regulated services. Janet Elliott has the details.
Ten years ago, Carmen Dusek found herself square in the middle of the largest child custody case ever litigated. The case involved charges of child abuse and rape in a remote compound run fundamentalist religious sect run by Warren Jeffs whose Biblical beliefs included a particularly strident form of polygamy. The case came to include scores of lawyers who volunteered from afar to assure adequate legal representation for some 400 children. She recalls the pride and disappointment to Janet Elliott in The Texas Lawyer.
Citing substantial errors by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade and inappropriate and unequivocally deceptive conduct by Texas plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier, the federal appeals court has reversed a Dallas jury’s $502 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson in the hip implant litigation.
A Dallas appeals court said Dallas trial judge acted within the bounds of his discretion when he dismissed a lawsuit filed against the National Football league by former NFL star Tony Romo. The court said that the league stayed within the boundaries of both its own rules and its collective bargaining agreement when it warned players about potential discipline for participating in a fantasy football show at a Las Vegas casino.
SCOTX reversed two lower courts and remanded for trial a lawsuit brought by the survivors of two men killed in a 2007 West Texas car crash, as well as a man injured in the accident. The case involved fees paid to their employer to assure transportation between their job site and company housing and a 1981 case both sides relied on to make their case.
The Texas Supreme Court last week remanded a controversial jury award on legal fees back to a Dallas court for retrial. The court decided that expert testimony instrumental in the $7.25 million ruling for Dallas lawyer Gregory Shamoun was insufficient to justify the claim. The case is the latest in what the court itself called a "spiderweb of litigation" involving Albert Hill Jr. Natalie Posgate has the details.
In two closely-watched cases decided Friday, SCOTX defended its seemingly conflicting views on state regulation of retained acreage. Chief Justice Nathan Hecht says it’s actually pretty simple: contracts mean what they say. Janet Elliott explains in The Texas Lawbook.
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