In this edition of Litigation Roundup, on the same day a patent holder who won a $445.5 million verdict against Samsung Electronics asked the court for a permanent injunction that would bar the company from selling its infringing phone, the tech giant asked the court for a new trial.
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.
Galveston County District Court
Construction Co. Beats $9M Suit at Trial
A jury in Galveston recently rejected the arguments of a Dickinson man who alleged he was owed $9 million in damages after falling into a storm drain.
The jury determined it was solely the negligence of Erik Forrest that caused his injuries, clearing Lucas Construction Company, the city of Dickinson and Huitt-Zollars, an architectural and engineering design firm, of any liability. Jurors heard nine days of testimony before returning their verdict Dec. 10.
According to court documents, the city of Dickinson entered into a contract with Lucas to complete a draining improvement project on the street in front of Forrest’s home. In his lawsuit, Forrest alleged Lucas failed to ensure that homeowners had access to their homes during the construction project that saw driveways on Pin Oak Drive blocked.
Forrest told the court that as he was returning home late one evening, he had to park his car “at the dead-end portion of his street,” and as he was walking home, he fell into “the unmarked, unblocked, unlit storm drain that had been put there by Lucas.” Forrest alleged he hit his head on steel bars during the fall, injuring his head and right hip. Jurors heard he suffered a concussion and was left with a permanent brain injury.
The managing partner of Lightfoot, Franklin & White’s Houston office, Jared Levinthal, represented Lucas at trial.
“I am incredibly proud of this team and the verdict in Lucas’ favor,” Levinthal said in a news release. “Coming into a case shortly before trial, you have to play the cards you’re dealt. This verdict is a testament to the hard work and innovative lawyers that we brought to the case.”
“I am happiest for the men and women of Lucas Construction. They did nothing wrong, and our jury spoke loud and clear.”
Galveston County District Judge Jeth Jones presided over the case.
Forrest is represented by William K. “Will” Adams and Thomas A. “Tad” Adams IV of The Adams Law Firm and Ashley Thomson and Charles P. Dunkel Jr. of Thomson Dunkel Law.
Lucas Construction is also represented by Joshua G. Latzman and Phillip J. Pullen of Lightfoot and Heidi Gumienny of Wright Close Barger & Guzman.
The case number is 23-CV-1475.
Tarrant County District Court
Paxton Alleges Health Care Records Monopoly in New Suit
Epic Systems Corporation has been accused of operating a monopoly over electronic healthcare records in a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas
The 67-page lawsuit filed Dec. 10 alleges Epic controls more than 90 percent of all health care records in the country and has employed a strategy that makes it costly and time consuming for hospitals to switch providers.
“For decades, Epic has amassed control over patient data by locking up hospitals into Epic [electronic health records], which in turn allowed Epic to insert itself as a gatekeeper over the underlying patient data,” the lawsuit alleges. “Epic controls who can access this data, when they can access it, and the terms by which they can access it — despite the simple fact that it is the hospitals’ and patients’ data, not Epic’s. Epic’s strategy has been inordinately successful.”
In a news release announcing the lawsuit, Attorney General Ken Paxton said it was part of his broader efforts to stop health record vendors from restricting parental access to minors’ records.
“We will not allow woke corporations to undermine the sacred rights of parents to protect and oversee their kids’ medical well being,” the statement reads. “This lawsuit aims to ensure that Texans can readily obtain access to these records and benefit from the lower costs and innovation that come from a truly competitive electronic health records market.”
Texas is represented by Katherine S. Dannenmaier, Diamante Smith and Kelley Owens of the attorney general’s office.
As of Monday, counsel for Epic Systems had not filed an appearance, and it was not clear from the online docket which judge had been assigned the case.
The case number is 236-372872-25.
Eastern District of Texas
Patent Owner That Secured $445.5M Verdict Against Samsung Wants Sales Blocked
Collision Communications, which in October secured a $445.5 million jury verdict against Samsung Electronics in a patent infringement case, has asked a judge for a permanent injunction that would prohibit the tech company “from further infringing” “the only patent with term remaining that Samsung’s concealed, willful infringement has not already destroyed.”
In addition to that request from Collision, filed Monday, Samsung filed two separate sealed motions: one seeking a new trial, and another asking the court to enter judgment in its favor as a matter of law. Collision has also filed a separate motion asking the court to award supplemental damages and interest.
At trial in October before U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, jurors found Samsung had willfully infringed technology that reduces signal interference in cellular network communications.
Samsung had argued it hadn’t infringed the technology and that the patents were invalid. The company also argued that if the jury did find infringement, damages should be $10 million or less. The jury rejected those arguments, awarding the damages to Collision in the form of a running royalty.
“An injunction against Samsung would also serve the public interest. Denying injunctive relief subjects patent owners to perpetual litigation and strains the legal system,” Collision Communications argued in the motion seeking the permanent injunction. “The reason is straightforward: Absent injunctive relief, perpetual litigation is more attractive than licensing to accused infringers when the accumulated unpaid licensing fees cost more than litigation. Granting a permanent injunction in this case would serve the public interest by correcting that dynamic.”
Collision is represented by Brad Caldwell, Chris Stewart, Justin Nemunaitis, Aisha Mahmood Haley, John Summers, Seth Reich, James Smith, James Yang, Alexander Gras and Xu Zhou of Caldwell Cassady & Curry, Andrea Fair of Miller Fair Henry and Paul D. Clement, C. Harker Rhodes IV and Camilo Garcia of Clement & Murphy.
Samsung is represented by Sean S. Pak, Victoria Maroulis, Patrick Stafford, Olga Slobodyanyuk, Nagendra Setty, Kevin Hardy, Joseph Reed, John McKee, Brice Lynch, Brian E. Mack, Brady Huynh and Austin Buscher of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
The case number is 2:23-cv-00587.
Western District of Texas
Apple Accused of Infringing Tech in Smartphones, Tablets
Apple Inc., which had already retained local attorney Deron Dacus to defend it against patent infringement claims in a recently filed lawsuit in Austin, has added to its defense team.
On Friday, Dacus filed six pro hac vice motions to add a group of attorneys from Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum to the case. In the lawsuit filed by DynaCap LLC in November, the company accuses STMicroelectronics of manufacturing a sensor that incorporates embedded capacitor technology that’s been patented by DynaCorp for 20 years. STMicroelectronics then sells that allegedly infringing sensor to Apple and others, where it is integrated into iPhones, iPads and more.
The technology is used to enhance the electrical performance of microelectronic systems, according to the suit.
Apple has reached an agreement with DynaCap to extend its deadline to respond to the lawsuit to Jan. 15. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright.
DynaCap is represented by Winston Huff and Kirk Voss of Griffith Barbee and Daniel L Schmid and Andrew G. DiNovo of DiNovo Price.
STMicroelectronics is represented by Richard L. Wynne Jr., Darin M. Klemchuk and Zachary Tiritilli of Klemchuk PLLC.
In addition to Dacus, Apple is represented by Michael T. Pieja, Samuel E. Schoenburg, Madeline Thompson, Ethan Perbohner, Kurt Holtzman and Xaviere Giroud of Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum.
The case number is 1:25-cv-01768.
Texas Supreme Court
Justices Side with Contractor in Fatal Crash Appeal
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling clarifying the scope of Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 97.002, which extinguishes liability for contractors who do road work for the Texas Department of Transportation.
Third Coast Services and SpawGlass Construction appealed to the state’s high court in December 2023.
According to court documents, Pedro Castaneda was driving across State Highway 249, about 40 miles north of downtown Houston, when two vehicles hit his trick, killing him. The parties dispute whether the traffic lights were covered with fabric to indicate they weren’t yet functional, but police determined Castaneda failed to yield the right of way at the stop sign controlling the intersection.
The construction contracts for the roadwork were between TxDOT and the County government, but they contemplated that third-party contractors would be hired to carry out the design and construction work, according to the opinion.
The Castaneda family sued the contractors handling construction there, Third Coast Services and SpawGlass Construction, and the contractors argued that Section 97.002 shielded them from liability. Harris County District Judge Jeralynn Manor denied summary judgment to the contractors, and the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed that holding. Those rulings found that because the contractors didn’t directly ink the deal with TxDOT, the liability shield did not apply.
Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle authored the unanimous opinion of the court. Justice Debra Lehrmann did not participate in the decision.
Justice Huddle wrote that the lower court “erred by engrafting a contractual-privity requirement onto the statute’s text.”
“The court of appeals erred by holding Section 97.002 applies only if a contractor is hired by TxDOT and a party to a TxDOT contract governing the construction project at issue,” she wrote. “Though neither SpawGlass nor Third Coast was a party to the TxDOT contract, the summary judgment record conclusively established that (1) Castaneda’s claim arose from the construction or repair of a highway and (2) SpawGlass and Third Coast performed their work “for” TxDOT within the meaning of Section 97.002.”
The justices sent the case back to the Houston appellate court so it can determine whether the contractors met the other elements necessary for Section 97.002 to apply.
Third Coast Services is represented by Jessica Z. Barger, Bradley W. Snead and Michael Adams-Hurta of Wright Close Barger & Guzman and by Zandra E. Foley and Daniel O’Neil of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons.
SpawGlass is represented by Anthony T. Golz, Gregory M. Cokinos and Dana Livingston of Cokinos Young
The Castanedas are represented by Vincent L. Marable III of Paul Webb PC and Jason A. Gibson and Casey L. Gibson of The Gibson Law Firm.
The case number is 23-0848.
Craving more Texas Lawbook litigation coverage? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at these stories you may have missed in the past few days.
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In a 10-2 decision reached after deliberating over two days, a jury in Dallas County Thursday determined New Prime and its driver owe $44 million in damages to the family of a man who was killed during a fatal pileup on an icy Interstate 35 in February 2021.
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Houston personal injury attorney Anna Greenberg represents four women who allege they were ejaculated on while shopping at Dollar Tree stores — one in Miami, one in San Diego, a client in Colorado Springs who was shopping with her mother and 2-year-old child, and one in Houston. “I would say it’s a uniquely vile sex crime, and my clients are uniquely injured here because it’s happening to them in a public space,” Greenberg said.
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Four technology companies either headquartered in Texas or with large operations in Texas illegally supplied semiconductor components — microchips, processors and programmable devices — that have been used by Russia’s military to kill thousands in drone and missile attacks in Ukraine, according to five different lawsuits filed Wednesday in the Dallas County Court at Law.
A Kaufman County jury has awarded $10.45 million to a woman who was injured during a corporate outing, finding Cummings Electrical and its employees negligent in connection with a shooting that occurred during the event in April 2023. After two and a half hours of deliberation, the jury found that Cummings Electrical failed to provide adequate supervision, proper event planning and safe premises conditions.
In white collar news, the former vice president of a Wichita Falls bank was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in a pandemic loan scam, and a Houston-area energy executive was convicted of conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a scheme involving paying bribes to Mexican officials.