Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Residents and business owners whose properties upstream of the Barker and Addicks reservoirs were flooded after Hurricane Harvey argued in Houston federal court Monday that authorities knew for decades that the lakes would likely not be contained during a major flooding event and did nothing to prevent it, resulting in property damage for which they should now be compensated.
A Texas state judge has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit that claimed a cancer researcher conspired with Baylor College of Medicine and a research firm, Diakanos Research Ltd., to interfere with licenses the plaintiff held with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Dallas developer of an upscale golfing community on the shores of Possum Kingdom Lake was cleared Friday of wrongdoing and won’t have to pay millions of dollars in damages to resort property owners who claimed they were harmed by a slew of alleged misdeeds spread over 20-plus years. Bill Hethcock of the DBJ has been following the saga.
A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has tossed all but $400,000 of a $21 million judgment against key players in the now-bankrupt Fort Worth-based company, Latitude Solutions Incorporated, which included Paul Mitchell and The Patrón Spirits Company co-founder John Paul DeJoria. The court said trial evidence was insufficient to support the bankruptcy trustee's contention of a "pump and dump" stock scheme. Natalie Posgate has more.
Exxon Mobil, Standard’s successor, filed a federal lawsuit last Thursday against Cuba’s national oil company and a state-owned industrial conglomerate for approximately $280 million, seeking compensation for the value of the assets plus almost six decades of interest. James Osborne of the Houston Chronicle reports.
Monica Latin has been elected to become the first female managing partner of Carrington Coleman, where she has spent her entire legal career. The Lawbook caught up with Latin to learn about her new role, which she will assume in May 2020.
At its best, the aggressive demand letter is a legal art form that can force parties to settle their differences outside the court. But at what point can an artful outline of problems and consequences become extortion or one of its criminal cousins? Randy Johnston of Johnston Tobey Baruch specializes in such ethical questions. Here are this hints on what you should worry about when sending these important client missives.
With 11 pretrial guilty pleas and seven convictions, the Forest Park litigation shows that federal prosecutors are willing to aggressively pursue criminal kickback, bribery and conspiracy charges in the health care industry. But as Alyson Brown of Clouse Brown shows, the trial also provides insights that can guide health care professionals in their contracting relationships.
A federal judge has frozen the assets of two unknown stock traders amid allegations that they used insider trading to make $2 million from Chevron's announcement to buy The Woodlands-based oil company Anadarko Petroleum. Sergio Chapa of the Houston Chronicle has the breaking story.
In a trademark lawsuit that began with a coffee cup plopped on his desk, Tracy Richardson led the charge to protect the distinctive Buc-ee's beaver grin from corporate copycats and poachers. Now, he and Buc-ee's are winners in the Business Litigation of the Year category of the 2019 Houston Corporate Counsel Awards. Read Mark Curriden's account of this award-winning litigation.
DALLAS – Reality TV star Camille Grammer won a real-life verdict Wednesday against the ex-boyfriend she says assaulted her in 2013. A federal jury ruled in a civil case that former corporate lawyer Dimitri Charalambopoulos had, in fact, attacked her in Houston at the Hotel ZaZa, and that she had not defamed him by reporting that he had. Natalie Posgate was in the courtroom.
Is Dallas-based developer Mike Ward a shrewd, hardworking businessman who has made a few mistakes? Or is he a power-hungry conman who used illegal transfers to steal millions of dollars over 20-plus years from the Property Owners Association at The Cliffs Resort?
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