Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A seven-person federal jury in Wilmington heard four days of testimony, deliberated for two hours and then unanimously found that a group of refined-coal plant operators affiliated with CERT Operations “willfully” violated the patented mercury-reducing technology of Corsicana-headquartered Midwest Energy Emissions Corp.
U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright presided over the trial that began with jury selection Feb. 15. Testimony began Feb. 20 and the jury returned its verdict Monday, determining Google had infringed five patents held by communications company Flyp with its Google Voice internet phone service.
Judge Martin Hoffman dismissed Parkland Health’s claims against 10 of its former nurses who filed a motion for summary judgment. Several more nurses are still fighting the lawsuit. Hoffman said he wants to see how the appeals court justices rule in a similar case now before them.
A three-justice panel of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals issued an opinion reviving the lawsuit brought by the family of Carolyn Burford against her husband’s former employer, Alcoa Inc., over her allegedly fatal exposure to asbestos. At a hearing before dismissing the case, Judge Mark Davidson, who presides over the asbestos multidistrict litigation court in Harris County, had said he was “reluctantly” granting Alcoa’s no-evidence motion for summary judgment and hoped his ruling would be reversed on appeal.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, a few recent rulings from the Texas Supreme Court are highlighted, a San Antonio attorney charged with defrauding clients out of as much as $65 million over 20 years goes to prison, and cryptocurrency miners sue the Department of Energy over an effort to get data on energy use.
Veronica Moyé joined King & Spalding as partner in the firm’s business litigation group. Moyé spoke with The Lawbook about her decision to move and what her goals are in this new chapter.
The court ruled that Denver-based Catalyst Strategic Advisors is entitled to an advisory completion fee in connection with the sale of a Houston building supply company. The court determined that the "procuring-cause doctrine" was rendered inapplicable by the specific language of Catalyst's contract, even though the sale took place 15 months after the company's sale.
The Texas Lawbook is pleased to announce that former Dallas Morning News courts reporter Krista Torralva has joined The Lawbook team to work with Michelle Casady and Janet Elliott to cover complex commercial litigation being handled by Texas lawyers.
Austin Teng, who officially joined Winstead this week, talks about his career change from software engineer to attorney and the future impact of artificial intelligence.
A unique site with exotic wildlife and an event center, the Texas Disposal Systems landfill near Austin is also a dump, its lawyer argues. The landfill is fighting to uphold a 2019 appraisal review board decision that lowered its valuation from $21.7 million to $2.8 million as part of an equal and uniform tax protest. Travis Central Appraisal District says a district court should review the landfill’s fair market value because of a lack of comparable properties.
The jury that was selected last Monday and began deliberating that Friday took about two and a half hours to side with construction staffing company Harris Ventures, which does business as Staff Zone, in its dispute with landlord JM-RB Properties. The panel’s 10-2 decision awarded Staff Zone about $1.3 million in lost profits incurred when it was “constructively evicted” from the building it leased in Plano, plus $450,000 in attorney fees and about $150,000 to cover expert witness costs.
Former software engineer Austin Teng was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Austin.
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