Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
The Texas Supreme Court is expect to decide any day whether stock incentive benefits can be denied when an executive jumps ship. Briefs filed by business and oil and gas associations worry that the decision could have “far-reaching and radical implications.”
A federal appeals courtl, in a potential landmark decision, ruled that Texas tort reform laws override civil penalties in other state laws unless the victims have suffered actual damages. “This is a significant, unprecedented decision that could have potentially grave unintended circumstances,” says Russell Bennett.
The two firms won an appeal in Fort Worth’s 2nd Court of Appeals this week for six media outlets in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Bankruptcy practitioners may see the 5th Circuit revisit its 1998 controversial decision in Pro-Snax Distributors, Inc., which required professionals to show their services resulted in an “identifiable, tangible, and material benefit to the estate” before those services would be compensable under Section 330 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Judge Higginbotham has authored more than 400 opinions during four decades on the federal bench. His decisions have redrawn Congressional election maps, transformed securities litigation, altered bankruptcy proceedings, and allowed monks to continue selling cheap caskets. But his opinion in the UT admissions case may be his most monumental. “It was a brave decision,” says former ExxonMobil GC Charles Matthews. “This case is another example of Pat laying out a roadmap for the future. He again demonstrated that he has no political agenda.”
A federal appeals court ruled late Tuesday that the University of Texas’ use of affirmative action is a fair and constitutionally permissible approach to admitting students.
The Supreme Court of Texas has rejected an appeal by Dallas businessman Bala Shagrithaya in his $40 million shareholder litigation against ARGO Data Resources, the software solutions business he co-founded in 1980. The justices’ decision is a complete victory for ARGO and is the second time in a week that minority shareholder cases claiming oppression have been soundly defeated at the state’s highest court.
A deeply divided Texas Supreme Court issued a landmark decision Friday that legal experts say will likely slam shut the courthouse door to minority investors in hundreds of privately owned Texas companies who feel they have been financially damaged by the actions or inactions of majority ownership.
A unanimous Supreme Court ruling Thursday will help courts apply existing patent laws to software inventions, experts say.
Plaintiffs often try to avoid invoking federal law to prevent removal, while defendants argue that substantial federal issues remain that justify jurisdiction in federal court. The Fifth Circuit may have just shifted the applicable test for federal jurisdiction in a way that encourages future removals.
The Texas Supreme Court announced Friday that it would not hear Bickel & Brewer’s appeal to be reinstated as lead counsel in a large international business lawsuit headed for trial in Dallas.
The Amarillo Court of Appeals vacated an arbitration award based on an arbitrator’s unreasonable delay. The arbitrator took 19 months to make a ruling that parties in the case had agreed would be rendered within 14 days.
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