In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Google gears up to defend against patent infringement claims in Midland, the battle between the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars won’t be going to a jury trial, a $17 million Ponzi scheme architect from Houston goes to prison, and the Texas Supreme Court sides with a lawyer fending off claims from a dissatisfied client.
The Litigation Roundup is a weekly feature highlighting the work Texas lawyers are doing inside and outside the state. Have a development we should include next week? Please let us know at tlblitigation@texaslawbook.net.
Texas Business Court
Mavs and Stars in Agreement, Jury Trial Canceled
The two Dallas sports franchises won’t battle over their attorney fees before a jury after coming to an agreement.
When the Dallas Mavericks dropped its tortious interference claim against the Dallas Stars in April, there wasn’t much left to be litigated, and the parties expected a quick resolution. That resolution came late last week.
The parties participated in mediation Thursday and ultimately agreed that attorney fees for both sides are $3.6 million and canceled the jury trial that was scheduled to start this week.
Late last year, the Mavericks sued the Stars seeking to enforce the terms of partnership contracts the teams signed nearly 25 years ago. The Mavericks claim the Stars breached its American Airlines Center lease by relocating its primary headquarters outside Dallas city limits.
The franchises’ leases at the American Airlines Center expire in 2031, and both teams are looking to play in new locations. The Mavericks are looking at the current site of Dallas City Hall, whereas the Stars are looking at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano.
Joshua Sandler, Frank Carroll, Cory C. Johnson, John David Janicek and Andrew J. Patterson of Winstead are representing the Stars.
Chip Babcock, Chris Bankler and Sarah Starr of Jackson Walker are representing the Mavericks.
The case number is 25-BC01B-0049.
Collin County District Court
Frisco Daycare Hit with Negligence Suit Alleging Toddler Mistreatment
Kids R Kids of Lawler Farm, a daycare center in Frisco, has been accused by a set of parents of inappropriately disciplining and mistreating their 3-year-old son and of also taking steps to cover up the alleged negligence.
Alexus Benavidez and Rauf Scott filed suit May 1 against the daycare, bringing claims for negligence, negligence per se, gross negligence and negligent activity related to its handling of their son. The lawsuit includes an image of the child’s mouth, depicting an injury on the inside of his lip that appears to have been caused by his teeth penetrating the skin.
The lawsuit also includes screenshots from video footage purportedly showing Kids R Kids employees “inappropriately yanking” the child by his arms, “spanking” and “smacking” him before “forcefully shoving” him into a chair, causing him to hit his leg, which started bleeding.
“The Kids R Kids caregiver ignores his cries and offers no assistance as A.S. is seen limping off to get his own paper towel to apply to his bleeding leg,” the lawsuit alleges.
The parents are represented by Russell T. Button, Ashley D. Knarr, Kaitlyn Moreno and Rena K. Piper of The Button Law Firm.
This marks the second lawsuit The Button Law Firm has filed against this defendant. In March, the firm filed suit on behalf of a mother of a different 3-year-old child, who also alleged staff at the daycare caused her son injuries.
The lawsuits were filed in the wake of a July 2024 investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, prompted by a report from the facility’s manager, according to the lawsuit. The owner, Vijaykumar Elango, allegedly reviewed the video footage that showed the rough treatment of some children, but instead of reporting it to DFPS, he “chose only to issue warnings to the caregivers,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Mr. Elango informed his Kids R Kids manager that he had deleted the camera footage and instructed the manager to delete what she had saved as well — a clear cover-up was underway,” the lawsuit alleges. “It was then that the management staff member decided to take action into her own hands and report the incident to DFPS.”
Counsel information for the daycare wasn’t immediately available.
The case number is 005-03612-2026.
Southern District of Texas
Loan Officer Indicted in Bank Fraud Conspiracy
A Houston area man who worked as a loan officer at a bank — identified in an indictment as “PSB” — has been charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud by federal prosecutors.
Siupo Ernest Mo of Missouri City was indicted April 29 and then arrested pursuant to a warrant May 5. His case was originally assigned to U.S. District Judge Nicholas J. Ganjei, who issued an order May 6 recusing himself without explanation. The case will now be overseen by Senior U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal.
A press release announcing his arrest alleges Mo acted as loan officer “on millions of dollars in fraudulent loans as part of a large-scale bank fraud scheme,” but the indictment lists just two loans — one for $1 million from PSB in July 2018, and another for about $39,000 from HW Bank in December 2022 — as the basis for the charges.
Prosecutors allege Mo assisted in preparing and submitting loan applications containing false information and recruited coconspirators to prepare false tax returns and other documents to support the loan applications.
Mo is represented by Dan Cogdell and Aisha Dennis of Cogdell Law Firm.
The government is represented by Belinda A. Beek of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 4:26-cr-00260.
Mastermind of $17M Ponzi Scheme Gets Prison
A 40-year-old man from Katy who had previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud was sentenced to a decade in prison last week for running a $17 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded dozens of victims.
Christopher Knight Lopez pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced May 7. His brother, Jayson Lopez, 43, of Orlando, Florida, pleaded guilty for his role in January and was sentenced Friday. The brothers are also defendants in a related lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that has been stayed since August 2021 pending resolution of the criminal cases.
According to the Department of Justice, between May 2015 and January 2025, the brothers operated several companies, including Knight Nguyen Investments, Knight Advisory and Planning, Aevum Holdings, Exempt Management and Ping An Financial Services in furtherance of the scheme. They would tell investors they had access to $2 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds that they could use to finance their clients’ businesses if they paid advance fees.
Prosecutors accuse the brothers of taking the money but never issuing the loans, defrauding more than 40 people out of about $17 million in total.
Jayson Lopez is represented by William Wynn of Fort Worth, John S. Wilson of Dallas and Nicole DeBorde of Hochglaube & DeBorde.
The criminal case is being prosecuted by Justin R. Martin of the Department of Justice.
In the SEC case, case number 4:21-cv-01586, Christopher Lopez is represented by Matthew Furse of Grable Martin, and Jayson Lopez is represented by Jeffrey Ansley of Vedder Price.
The case number is 4:21-cr-00301.
Western District of Texas
Google Hires Defense in Athena Security Patent Suit
Google has tapped an Austin business litigation boutique to defend it against patent infringement claims playing out in Midland.
In a notice filed May 4, Katharine Carnoma of Richards Rodriguez & Skeith informed U.S. District Judge Derek T. Gilliland she’d be representing Google in the lawsuit that was filed April 20.
Athena Security alleged Google is infringing the technology covered by four of its patents through the sale of certain products, including Google Security Operations, Google Cloud, Google Jupiter Datacenter Switches and Google Cloud VPN.
Athena informed the court in an April 20 filing it had filed related claims in the Western District of Texas against Dell Technologies and Amazon.com. Amazon has hired a defense team of New York and California attorneys from Fenwick & West, while Dell has retained Brady Cox and Michael Newton from Alston & Bird’s Dallas office and Roger Fulgham of Baker Botts in Houston to defend it.
On May 5, Judge Gilliland granted Google’s request for an extension to file its answer, which is now due July 2.
Athena Security is represented by Adam Hoffman, Daniel Kolko, James Tsuei, Jefferson Cummings, Paul A. Kroeger and Reza Mirzaie of Russ August & Kabat.
The Google case number is 7:26-cv-00158. The Amazon case number is 7:26-cv-00061. The Dell case number is 7:26-cv-00025.
Fourteenth Court of Appeals, Houston
Energy Transfer Gets Partial Win in Wrongful Death Arbitration Dispute
A three-justice panel has determined an arbitrator must be allowed to decide the scope of an arbitration agreement in litigation brought by the family of an injured pipeline technician who died after suffering catastrophic burns in a gas explosion.
In a 26-page opinion issued May 5, the court determined that a trial court incorrectly denied Energy Transfer’s motion to compel arbitration and stay litigation in the lawsuit brought by the family of John Purland.
“Although the parties raise other arguments for and against arbitrability under other statutes or the common law, those arguments are all encompassed by the agreement’s broad delegation clause, so an arbitrator must ultimately determine whether the merits of the personal-injury and wrongful-death claims at issue will be decided by an arbitrator or a court.”
The appellate court instructed the trial court to issue an order that does three things: compels arbitration of any dispute regarding the scope of the arbitration agreement, compels arbitration of any claims the arbitrator determines are arbitrable and stays proceedings in the trial court until arbitration concludes.
But the opinion also partially sided with arguments advanced by the Purlands — that because he was a transportation worker, the claims cannot be compelled to arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act. The FAA contains an exemption for the claims of transportation workers.
“We conclude that the Purlands cannot be compelled to arbitrate under the FAA because the arbitration agreement was part of Purland’s employment contract and Purland was a member of a class of transportation workers whose employment contracts are encompassed by the FAA’s section 1 exemption,” the panel wrote. “Because the parties’ remaining appellate arguments concerning arbitrability fall within the agreement’s broad delegation clause, those disputes must be resolved by an arbitrator.”
Chief Justice Tracy Christopher and Justices Brad Hart and Chad Bridges sat on the panel.
Energy Transfer is represented by Jessica Z. Barger, Eva M. Guzman and Brian J. Cathey of Write Close Barger & Guzman and Brett J. Young, J. Devin Wagner and Jack Kill of Norton Rose Fulbright.
The Purlands are represented by David C. Frederick, Katherine C. Cooper and Jahvonta A. Mason of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick and Kurt B. Arnold, J. Kyle Findley and John G. Grinnan of Arnold & Itkin.
The case number is 14-25-00110-CV.
Texas Supreme Court
Houston Lawyer Wins Appeal in Accord-and-Satisfaction Doctrine Case
In a case that had divided a lower appellate court, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday issued a per curiam opinion siding with a Houston lawyer who argued that once she had sent a refund check to a dissatisfied client, and the client had cashed the check, the client was barred from pursuing related litigation.
According to the 10-page opinion, Robert Walker retained Deborah Bryant and her firm in July 2017 for help terminating his child support obligations. After a year and about $3,300 in payments to Bryant, Walker “discovered that the pleadings Bryant had prepared on Walker’s behalf were filed in an earlier suit that the trial court had dismissed in April 2017.”
So, Walker emailed Bryant demanding a refund, expressing his dissatisfaction and terminating the attorney-client relationship. Bryant responded that she would close his case file, return his original documents and send a refund check by certified mail after he signed a release, which she said he should review with an attorney prior to signing.
Several days later, after no response from Walker, Bryant mailed the refund, the release and his original documents and in the memo line of the check wrote “cash of this check represents a full and final settlement and release of all claims against [Bryant] and [The Bryant Law Firm] and refund of all attorney’s fees on [this matter].”
Walker crossed out the memo line and deposited the check. He did not sign the release agreement and hired new counsel that successfully had his child support obligations terminated in 2019, according to the opinion.
Walker then sued Bryant, bringing claims for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. A jury sided with Walker, awarding him $6,600 for child support payments he made while a client of Bryant’s and $50,000 in exemplary damages.
In a divided opinion, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals affirmed, but the dissenting justice wrote he “would have held that Bryant demonstrated an accord and satisfaction defense as a matter of law.”
The Texas Supreme Court wrote that Walker had actual knowledge that cashing the check would mean he was authorizing “a full and final release against Bryant.”
“Walker’s intentional strike-through of the notation on the check does not relieve him of the legal consequence of negotiating it and depositing it into his account,” the court held. “For more than a century, our Court has held that mutual assent is satisfied when a party accepts a negotiable instrument with knowledge it is offered as full payment and then proceeds to negotiate it.”
The Bryant Law Firm and Deborah Bryant are represented by Reginald E. McKamie Sr. of Houston.
Walker is represented by Allie R. Booker of The Booker Law Firm.
The case number is 25-0131.
Alexa Shrake contributed to this report.
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