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Commercial Litigation

Bloomberg Law: Waco Judge Albright Moving to Austin

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright, one of the most popular jurists for handling patent infringement disputes in the U.S., is moving his chambers from Waco to Austin, Bloomberg Law reported late Wednesday. The judges of the Western District of Texas have approved Judge Albright’s request to move his primary chambers to Austin in 2025, according to Bloomberg Law. The transfer must be approved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s Judicial Council.

Mark Curriden

Southwest Regroups to Defend Free Flights for Low-Income Hispanic Students Against Lawsuit

A federal judge in Dallas has given Southwest Airlines more time to prepare a legal defense against a lawsuit brought by an organization that claims the airline’s program offering free flights for low-income Hispanic students to go home to visit their parents is illegally discriminatory. Senior U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater ruled Dec. 6 that the lawsuit brought by the American Alliance for Equal Rights must proceed forward even though Southwest officials agreed to end the charitable effort several months ago.

Mark Curriden

Energy Transfer Co-Founder Kelcy Warren’s Testimony Blocked in Breach-of-Contract Trial Over 2018 Pipeline Explosion

A Pennsylvania judge ruled to block testimony from Energy Transfer co-founder Kelcy Warren, who is also executive chairman on the board of directors. Dallas-based Cardinal Midstream had sought to have Warren testify about comments he made about Energy Transfer “making mistakes” in its Pennsylvania projects. Cardinal Midstream is seeking $33 million from Energy Transfer under a purchase agreement, claiming that a pipeline explosion prevented the fulfillment of an earnout condition tied to gas delivery volumes. Energy Transfer argues that the explosion, caused by a landslide from heavy rains, qualifies as a "force majeure," while Cardinal Midstream blames poor pipeline design for the failure.

Krista Torralva

Texas Supreme Court Hears Ex-SMU Law Prof’s Case

Cheryl Butler, a former Southern Methodist University law professor, sued the university and several former colleagues in 2016, bringing claims for defamation, fraud and conspiracy to defame. She appealed to the Fifth Circuit in January 2023, the same month U.S. District Judge Ada Brown dismissed her case with prejudice after agreeing that the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act preempted the claims. The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case that will determine whether Butler will be allowed to proceed with a defamation claim against her former coworkers, who she alleges played a role in her being denied tenure in 2016.

Michelle Casady

SCOTX Considers Foreseeability of Cross-Median Crash

The deadly crash happened in December 2014 on an icy interstate near Odessa when a pickup truck carrying a woman and her three children crossed into the path of an 18-wheeler helmed by a driver trainee. Trucking and business interests decry the $116 million Harris County trial judgment as an outlier among commercial vehicle cases.

Janet Elliott

Litigation Roundup: Buc-ee’s Goes to Court, Again, in TM Spat

In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail the outside lawyers Texas has hired to bring suit against some of the largest private equity firms in the world alleging they conspired to depress the market for coal and a Beaumont personal injury lawyer gets sanctioned for using Claude to write a brief that included made-up cases and quotes.

Michelle Casady

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