The Texas Lawbook

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Commercial Litigation

Litigation Roundup: Judge Finds BP Violated ERISA; Fifth Circuit Stays Chamber’s Fight with CFPB

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a judge in Houston sides with a group of former BP employees in an ERISA suit, the Fifth Circuit expedites oral arguments in a dispute between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over plans to cap credit card late fees and Parkland Health prevails on appeal in an employment discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.

‘Precedent Setting’ Agreement Ends McDermott’s Billion-Dollar Colombian Refinery Dispute

Houston-based McDermott International ended its eight-year dispute with Refinería de Cartagena Friday when an SDTX bankruptcy judge signed signed off on a remarkable $900 million package that includes the surrender of 19.9% of the company’s common equity. For Mike Stenglein of King & Spalding, the unprecedented solution marks the end, not only of a grueling international litigation, but resolves all doubt that his Colombian clients were responsible for billions lost in their refinery’s construction.

First Reserve, Forum Energy and SilverBow Finalists for 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Business Litigation of the Year

The general counsel at First Reserve, the GC at Forum Energy Technology and the associate GC at SilverBow Resources all scored big courtroom victories for their companies last year and have been selected by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook as finalists for the 2024 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.

Litigation Roundup: Match Group Hires Sidley to Defend Class Action; Judge O’Connor Recuses in CFPB Challenge

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Jerry Jones gets a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman claiming to be his daughter dismissed after the plaintiff’s failed attempt to amend the claims, the ExxonMobil Oil Corporation gets its win in a coverage dispute with AIG affirmed by a Dallas appellate court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit calls out a federal judge in McAllen for denying a motion to dismiss a retaliation lawsuit with “no analysis period.”

Dallas COA Opinion Highlights How TCPA Framework Can be ‘Undermined’

This week a three-justice panel of the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas ordered Dallas County District Judge Staci Williams to hold a hearing on a motion to dismiss pending before her that was brought under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. The state’s anti-SLAPP law requires that a hearing on a motion to dismiss take place within 60 days, but Judge Williams’ staff told the relators in this case — who tried six times to get a hearing set — that, while it does its best to accommodate requests for hearings, its docket is “jammed packed” and “there is no way to SQUEEZE your motion into the requested docket.”

Fifth Circuit Panel Decries ‘Rambo’ Tactics in Reversal, Scathing Opinion

A three-judge panel including the chief judge issued a rare reversal of a trial verdict on the grounds of improper jury argument. Two Texas lawyers who resorted to name calling, including one who threw a tissue box at opposing counsel, “employed nearly every category of what we have previously held to be improper closing argument,” the judges wrote. 

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