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Trials & Litigation
Key Ongoing Litigation Coverage Timelines From the Texas Lawbook

Gateway Church: Litigation arising from abuse allegations involving church leadership.

Camp Mystic Flood: Lawsuits tied to the deadly 2025 flood at the Central Texas girls' summer camp.

Winter Storm Uri: Litigation tied to the storm and Texas' deadly electric grid failure in 2021.

Susman Godfrey EOs: Litigation between the firm and President Trump tied to a 2025 EO targeting it and others.

SDTX Bankruptcy Court Scandal: The former chief judge had an undisclosed relationship with an attorney whose firm appeared before him.

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

Dallas Law Firms Face Off in $33M Breach-of-Contract Case Over Pipeline Explosion Near Pittsburgh

Cardinal Midstream II LLC, represented by Reese Marketos, is suing Energy Transfer and its affiliate ETC Northeast Pipeline LLC for $33 million in a bench trial that started Monday before Beaver County (Pa.) Court of Common Pleas Judge James J.Ross. Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann represents Energy Transfer, which says the judge should find the force majeure clause applies because a landslide caused the 2018 pipeline explosion.

Krista Torralva

Rapper Drake Taps Houston Firm AZA to Take Rap Beef to Courtroom 

Rapper Drake has tapped Houston law firm Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing, known as AZA, to represent him in a legal action against Universal Music Group amid his high-profile feud with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar. AZA Partners John Zavitsanos, Daryl Moore, Monica Uddin and associate Michael Killingsworth on Monday filed a pre-lawsuit petition in Bexar County requesting permission to take depositions of corporate representatives for UMG and iHeartMedia.

Krista Torralva

Jury Slams Natera with $292.5M Verdict in False Advertising, Unfair Competition Trial over Colorectal Cancer Test

Guardant Health and Natera had lodged false advertising claims against each other, with Guardant filing suit first in May 2021 and Natera following with counterclaims in June 2021. The jury, which was seated Nov. 4 and heard 10 days of testimony before returning a verdict Monday, awarded Guardant $75 million in damages for corrective advertising, about $41.5 million for disgorgement of Natera’s profits and $175.5 million in punitive damages. 

Michelle Casady

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