Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Texas Supreme Court dashed the hopes of drillers, concrete providers, business groups and limited government advocates in a ruling that turned on the role that pipes and tubes play in the physical changes of oil and gas moving from underground to the surface.
An Edinburg doctors’ hospital is not liable for a botched delivery by one of its physician partners because the doctor was not acting with authority of the partnership, justices ruled Friday. The decision clarified a situation in which a limited partner in a doctor-owned hospital also practices at the hospital. The court said that such doctors are acting under their separate admitting privileges, not with any authority of the partnership.
It is the first time for the Fifth Circuit to rule on the application of a most favored nations (MFN) clause in which the original license and the later, more favorable license both included lump sum payments.
A $1.4 million civil penalty won by optometrists who leased space in Wal-Mart stores equates to exemplary damages barred under a 1995 tort reform law, the Texas Supreme Court said Friday.
Medical and business groups warn that the future of doctor-owned hospitals hangs in the balance as the Texas Supreme Court considers whether a hospital partnership could be vicariously liable for a physician-partner’s alleged negligence.
The Fifth Circuit recently reversed the dismissal on the pleadings of a products liability claim, noting the difficulties faced by plaintiffs who lack access to critical information in the defendants’ files.
The Supreme Court of Texas in two cases this month limited municipal immunity for cities engaged in discretionary activity. The court ruled in a third case that city officers must act within their legal authority for immunity to apply. The unanimous decisions are expected to impact pending cases, including a $19 million gas lease fight between the City of Dallas and Trinity East Energy.
Oral arguments took place Wednesday regarding the 2014 landmark Texas jury verdict that legally established a business version of common law marriage and resulted in a $500 million judgment against Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners. Enterprise asked the Dallas Court of Appeals to reversed the trial court, saying there were “serious legal flaws with this verdict.” Not true, argued lawyers from Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, who noted that, “This is a big dollar case because Enterprise stole a big dollar opportunity from us.”
Oral arguments took place Wednesday regarding the 2014 landmark Texas jury verdict that legally established a business version of common law marriage and resulted in a $500 million judgment against Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners. Enterprise asked the Dallas Court of Appeals to reversed the trial court, saying there were “serious legal flaws with this verdict.” Not true, argued lawyers from Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, who noted that, “This is a big dollar case because Enterprise stole a big dollar opportunity from us.”
The Supreme Court of Texas recently upheld a 55-cent-per-pack tax on the makers of discount cigarettes, finding the Legislature had a rational basis to distinguish between small manufacturers and Big Tobacco companies that settled with the state in 1998.
Royal Brin’s first job as a lawyer was at the U.S. base in Guadalcanal during World War II. After the war ended, he started working at Strasburger & Price in Dallas. The firm had less than 10 lawyers. Last month, Brin celebrated his 70th year at Strasburger. He’s advanced from being a courthouse runner to defending insurance companies in personal injury and death cases to developing a specialty in appellate law. Today, he is considered by many as one of the deans of the state’s appellate bar. The 96-year-old Dallas native still shows up to work every day and regularly attends the appellate group’s meetings. But there is another craft that Brin has mastered and practiced longer than the law – magic.
A federal appeals court reinstated a million-dollar jury verdict for a severely disabled Keller Independent School District student who had been abused by a former special education teacher. In doing so, the Fifth Circuit provided litigants and judges a much clearer road-map about when parents or other parties may bring civil claims on behalf of minors who are unable to competently make legal decisions on their own.
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