In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Texas Instruments is dealt a blow by the Texas Business Court in its quest to get an injunction against a competitor and a half dozen amicus briefs have been filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by parties in favor of preserving a Texas gun restriction penal code.
Also, the Dallas Bar Association has announced it will be honoring Mike Lynn as its Trial Lawyer of the Year and Dallas County District Judge Tonya Parker as the Hon. Barbara M.G. Lynn Jurist of the Year.
The DBA cited Lynn’s 50-plus-year career, during which he’s founded a successful litigation boutique, taken about 120 cases to trial, secured more than $1 billion in jury verdicts for plaintiffs and defeated more than $1 billion in requested damages on behalf of defendants.
“I am grateful and humbled to be recognized by the Dallas Bar as Trial Lawyer of the Year, which does such great work for all of us,” Lynn told The Lawbook. “And to be recognized with Judge Parker, certainly one of the best judges ever on the Dallas Court, is doubly satisfying.”
Judge Parker has presided over the 116th District Court since 2011, and the DBA cited her “excellence, integrity and dedication to the administration of justice,” as well as her dedication to community outreach and education in naming her this year’s recipient of the award.
Judge Parker and Lynn will be presented with their awards during the annual DBA Bench Bar Conference, taking place this year Sept. 24 and 25 at Horseshoe Bay Resort.
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.
Harris County District Court
Tesla Hires Defense Counsel in Fatal Autopilot Crash Suit
Two months ago, the Barbour family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla and a man who was behind the wheel, allegedly using autopilot, when his car slammed into their home, killing one.
Last week, Tesla filed an answer to the claims, saying all blame lies with the car’s driver, Michael Butler, who is also a defendant in the lawsuit and is facing a criminal charge of manslaughter.
According to the lawsuit, Martha Avila, 76, lived at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Jennifer and Justin Barbour, with their young children. On the evening of June 19, Avila was at home and Butler would later tell authorities he was behind the wheel of his Tesla 3, which was operating on Autopilot.
The two-ton car slammed into the front of the home, striking Avila, who was inside the front room, pinning her in the wreckage. She was taken by helicopter to a hospital where she died. Justin Barbour was seriously injured, an amended petition states.
The amended petition, filed Aug. 19, adds DoorDash as a defendant. Butler was allegedly delivering for the app at the time of the fatal crash.
The case has been assigned to Harris County District Judge Kathryn Shuchart. As of Monday, the docket did not indicate any hearings had been set in the case.
The Barbours are represented by Ryan Zehl, Adam Nichols, Misha Paltiyevich, Boston Mallory and Christopher Adkins of Zehl & Associates.
Tesla is represented by Nancy L. Patterson and Clayton A. Morton of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
The case number is 2026-42166.
Texas Business Court, Eighth Division
Biz Court Denies Texas Instruments’ Temporary Injunction Request
The Texas Business Court denied Texas Instruments’ application for temporary injunctive relief against a competitor and former employee, finding its arguments are speculative.
Texas Business Court Judge Jerry Bullard heard arguments from counsel in June and ordered post-hearing briefs. The hearing was held in the court’s makeshift courtroom at Texas A&M University School of Law. Texas Instruments asked to seal the courtroom for the four-hour hearing due to the discussion of trade secrets.
Kannan Soundarapandian worked at Texas Instruments from 2002 to 2026 and was serving as vice president and business unit manager for high voltage power within Texas Instruments’ analog power products organization when he resigned.
Texas Instruments claims Soundarapandian refused to disclose who his new employer was when he resigned. In April, Texas Instruments filed a petition in Tarrant County seeking discovery on whether Soundarapandian was working for a competitor and, if so, in what capacity.
On the same day Texas Instruments filed its petition, it also sent a demand letter to Soundarapandian for repayment of certain interests. Counsel for Soundarapandian and GlobalFoundries, where he is now a senior vice president, responded to the letter.
Texas Instruments claims in its lawsuit that Soundarapandian “can use his knowledge of TI’s technology roadmap for GaN and BCD technology to inform GlobalFoundries’ development team of TI’s targets, timelines, and projections for these technologies.” According to court documents, GaN, or gallium nitride, and BCD, or bipolar-CMOS-DMOS, are used in the manufacturing of semiconductors.
Soundarapandian faces accusations by his former employer of breaching his assignment of inventions and a confidentiality agreement he entered when he started at Texas Instruments in 2002.
Texas Instruments also brings misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious interference with contract claims against Soundarapandian and GlobalFoundries.
Judge Bullard wrote in his Friday order that Texas Instruments has not sustained its burden to obtain injunctive relief.
“Texas Instruments’ arguments are speculative, and its requested relief does little by way of preserving the status quo and does not satisfy traditional injunction requirements,” Judge Bullard wrote.
Marc Katz, Micala Bernardo, Alicia Pitts, Daniella Main, Maria Garrett and Toby Galloway of Vartabedian Katz Hester & Haynes, and Bradley Caldwell, Robert Reich and John Summers of Caldwell Cassady Curry are representing Texas Instruments. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sean Gorman, Andrew Zeve, Andrew Jacobs and Michael Songer of White & Case are representing GlobalFoundries and Soundarapandian.
In a statement issued to The Texas Lawbook Monday, GlobalFoundries said it was “pleased with the outcome, which is consistent with the company’s position on this matter.”
The case number is 26-BC08A-0017.
Alexa Shrake contributed this report.
Northern District of Texas
Texas Oil Co. Ordered to Comply with SEC Investigative Subpoena
Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Friday ordered a Texas oil company, five affiliated entities and six individuals to respond to outstanding investigative subpoenas from the SEC.
The federal agency is investigating possible fraudulent securities offerings. The SEC filed the subpoenas in April 2024 seeking documents and sworn testimony from the following entities: 1859 Operating, Centerfire Consulting, DMMD Marketing, DM Sales Consulting, The Slade Group, Slade Marketing, Adam Fieldsted, Dillon Murrow, Alison Slade, Dallin Slade, Duane Slade and Mason Slade.
The SEC is trying to determine whether antifraud provisions or other securities laws may have been violated via 1859s offers and sales of fractional undivided working interests in oil leases that raised about $42.7 million.
On Aug. 20, the SEC filed its motion to compel compliance with the subpoenas, telling the court that, out of the potential millions of responsive documents, counsel for the respondent entities had produced just 8,344 documents and that several individuals failed to appear for a previously agreed-to meeting to gather testimony.
Chief Judge O’Connor’s order allows the individual respondents 21 days to meet and offer testimony to the SEC at its Fort Worth regional office and 30 days to comply with the document production requests.
The SEC is represented by its own Jason Rose, Timothy McCole and Alexis Purcell.
The respondent entities are represented by Matthew Ford of Ford O’Brien Landy in Austin.
The case number is 4:26-mc-00012.
Western District of Texas
Duo Convicted for Roles in $80M Ponzi Scheme
A jury in San Antonio last week convicted two men for their roles in what prosecutors said was a Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of victims.
Joshua Allen and Michael Cox, of Lubbock, ran four investment companies that were used to further the scheme: Ferrum Capital, Ferrum II, Ferrum III and Ferrum IV. Prosecutors told jurors the duo misled investors about the security of the investments and also concealed the high commissions they were paid. Like all Ponzi schemes, money from new investors was used to pay prior investors.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery presided over the jury trial that ended in convictions for Allen and Cox on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and securities fraud.
Judge Biery is set to sentence both men Dec. 10. Their codefendant, Brooklyn Chandler Willy, pleaded guilty to 10 counts for her involvement in the scheme in March. She is set to be sentenced Dec. 14.
Cox is represented by Michael Gross of Gross & Esparza.
Allen is represented by Anthony Box, Derek Younkers and Greg White of Gray Reed & McGraw and Eduardo Mendoza of Mendoza Defense.
The case was prosecuted by Joseph Blackwell, Kristy Callahan, Mary Valadez and Samuel Shapiro of the Department of Justice.
The case number is 5:25-cr-00399.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Amicus Briefs Pile Up in Texas Penal Code Gun Case
Six amicus briefs have been filed in the case challenging the constitutionality of Texas Penal Code Section 46.03 — which criminalizes possession of firearms at racetracks, sporting events and businesses where alcohol sales account for 51 percent of sales.
A wide variety of groups are represented in the friend-of-the-court briefs, but they all support the same argument: that U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman got it right in March when he rejected the Second Amendment argument presented by lead plaintiff Charles Ziegenfuss in his lawsuit against the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Ziegenfuss filed notice of appeal with the Fifth Circuit in April. The first amicus brief was filed in August by Gregg Costa of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Eric Ruben, a professor at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Costa and Ruben served as court-appointed amicus counsel at the trial level after the Texas attorney general “declined to defend the merits of the Legislature’s duly-enacted laws,” Judge Pittman explained in a court order.
“Texas has preserved sensitive-places restrictions without compromising its role as a leader in protecting Second Amendment rights,” the amicus from Costa and Ruben reads. “Even as Texas has embraced permitless carry, it has maintained restrictions on carrying weapons into — among other places — bars where alcohol is consumed; sporting events where passions run high; and racetracks where alcohol collides with crowds, cash, and chance. These choices reflect a deep-rooted democratic consensus: Texans want the freedom to keep and bear arms alongside common-sense safeguards in the sensitive places where the risk of violence is most acute.”
The Texas Restaurant Association followed with its own brief a few days later and is now joined by Everytown for Gun Safety, the Houston Astros, Houston Dynamo, Houston Dash, FC Dallas, Austin FC, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Harris County, the Harris County sheriff’s office, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen.
“TRA supports affirming the district court’s decision for the same reason it supports the laws against driving while intoxicated and the use of designated drivers: TRA is committed to creating safe and fun environments for Texas adults who choose to enjoy alcoholic drinks,” the TRA brief reads.
The brief from the sports clubs and HLSR argue that allowing guns on premises would completely undermine the security apparatus in place.
“Invalidation would not merely leave a doctrinal gap — it would cascade into severe operational consequences,” the brief reads. “Gate screening would become unworkable when security personnel cannot verify license status in real time.”
In siding with Costa and Ruben to uphold the challenged penal code, Judge Pittman wrote that Texans are “arguably among the most prominent protectors of our Second Amendment liberties” but noted that they also “made a decision to balance their rights to firearms with other special factors concerning sensitive places.”
“In such a situation, the Court must proceed with great care at the risk of trampling on the will of the people,” he wrote. “Indeed, lest it be forgotten, Texans can renege on the Firearms Prohibitions if they so choose through their elected representatives. The Court, therefore, holds that the Texas Firearms Prohibitions do not violate the Constitution.”
Ziegenfuss is represented by R. Brent Cooper of Cooper & Scully and Bradley Benbrook, Stephen Duvernay and Jamie McWilliam of Benbrook Law Group.
Texas is represented by Matthew Hilderbrand and William Peterson of the Texas attorney general’s office.
Costa and Ruben are represented by themselves, as well as Blake Ellison, Andrew Mitchell and Arjun Ogale of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
The Houston Astros, Dynamo, Dash, FC Dallas, Austin FC and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo are represented by Mark Trachtenberg and Shayna Goldblatt Proler of Haynes Boone.
Harris County, Harris County sheriff’s office, Harris County district attorney and Harris County Precinct 1 constable are represented by Edward Swindriski, Lisa Luz Parker, Neal Sarkar and Abbie Kamin of the county attorney’s office.
The Texas Restaurant Association is represented by Grant Martinez and Andrew Ingram of Yetter Coleman.
Everytown for Gun Safety is represented by its own Janet Carter, William J. Taylor Jr. and Rachel A.B. Danner.
The case number is 26-10302.
Panel Sides with River Authority in Groundwater Fight
The San Jacinto River Authority did not violate antitrust laws when it enacted a groundwater reduction plan, a three-judge panel determined in a 30-page opinion issued Tuesday.
Quadvest LP, a family-operated, investor-owned utility operating in Montgomery County and nearby counties north of Houston, had alleged that the river authority’s mandate that large volume groundwater users reduce their usage by 30 percent violated the Sherman Act as an unlawful restraint on trade. U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. rejected that argument after a 10-day bench trial, triggering Quadvest to file notice of appeal in September.
“Quadvest falters out of the gate,” the opinion reads. “It cannot carry its initial burden because it failed to define the relevant market at trial and forfeited any arguments to the contrary on appeal.”
The panel wrote that Quadvest’s briefing “focuses only on the next question — whether there are substantial anticompetitive effects of the GRP contract,” and its reply brief “attempts to shed the burden altogether by arguing that no proof of market power is required where ‘the very purpose and effect of a horizontal agreement’ is to make the prices unresponsive to a competitive market.”
“Even at oral argument, Quadvest’s counsel reprised the same burden-shedding argument, contending that Quadvest need not define the market because the restraint is per se illegal,” the opinion reads. “As explained above, however, the GRP contract is neither horizontal nor price fixing, and thus, is not per se unlawful.”
Judges Carolyn Dineen King, Jerry Smith and Irma Carrillo Ramirez sat on the panel.
SJRA is represented by Connie Pfeiffer, Justin Rowinsky, Luke Schamel, Paul Yetter and James Zucker of Yetter Coleman.
Quadvest is represented by Kurt Kuhn of Kuhn Law and Aaron Dilbeck and J. David Rowe of Munck Wilson Mandala.
The case number is 25-20415.
Chief Judge O’Connor Ordered to Redo Venue Analysis in Media Matters Case
A three-judge panel on Friday ordered Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to conduct a new venue analysis in Media Matters’ request to move a lawsuit pending against it to the Northern District of California.
X Corp. filed suit against Media Matters in November 2023 in response to a series of articles the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit published that were critical of the social media website and its CEO, Elon Musk. One article in particular alleged that advertisements on X from popular brands were placed next to “conspiratorial, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ user content,” according to the opinion. Many of the companies mentioned in the article — Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal and IBM, among them — stopped advertising on X as a result.
X brought claims for interference with contract, business disparagement and interference with prospective economic advantage.
The panel wrote that when deciding on whether to grant a motion to transfer venue, a district court must consider four “private-interest factors,” listed first below, and four “public-interest factors.” Those eight factors are:
- “the relative ease of access to sources of proof”;
- “the availability of compulsory process to secure the attendance of witnesses”;
- “the cost of attendance for willing witnesses”;
- “all other practical problems that make trial of a case easy, expeditious and inexpensive”;
- “the administrative difficulties flowing from court congestion”;
- “the local interest in having localized interests decided at home”;
- “the familiarity of the forum with the law that will govern the case”; and
- “the avoidance of unnecessary problems of conflict of laws [or in] the application of foreign law.”
“Here, though, the district court did not identify, let alone evaluate, any of the eight factors,” the panel wrote, explaining that Chief Judge O’Connor had instead determined Media Matters failed “to act with reasonable promptness” in requesting the move.
Judges James E. Graves Jr., Edith Brown Clement and Don R. Willett sat on the panel.
Media Matters is represented by Justin Nelson, Matthew Behncke, Alexandra Grafton and Katherine Peaslee of Susman Godfrey and Dwight Bostwick of Zuckerman Spaeder.
X Corp. is represented by Judd Stone, Michael Abrams, Elizabeth Fore, Cody Coll, Ari Cuenin, Alexander Dvorscak, Chris Hilton and Alithea Sullivan of Stone Hilton and John Sullivan of SL Law.
The case number is 25-10630.
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.
A Texas Business Court jury in Dallas deliberated for just 90 minutes late Friday night before ordering FiberWave and one of its subcontractors to pay AT&T $8 million for breaching its contractual duty to indemnify the telecom giant. The litigation started when FiberWave, a former sales partner, sued AT&T for $50 million in unpaid commissions.
A Texas appellate court Friday slashed more than $43 million in exemplary damages awarded against Alex Jones, holding that the trial judge erred by letting the parents of a student murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting amend their petition post-verdict in order to avoid the state’s cap on exemplary damages.
On Thursday, the Dallas Court of Appeals concluded that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine — which, in essence, bars civil courts from deciding cases that call into question a church’s doctrine, internal decisions and governance — applied to completely end Cindy Clemishire’s claims against Gateway Church and its elders.
Federal securities regulators have accused three former top executives of Tricolor Holdings of a multiyear scheme to mislead investors about the subprime auto lender’s financial health by double-pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in auto loans and disguising delinquent or worthless loans as legitimate collateral.
In a breach of contract case where comments before the jury implied certain parties were racist, sexist or even akin to Nazi Joseph Goebbels, a new trial must take place, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals determined Tuesday.
The Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars filed a joint motion with the Fifteenth Court of Appeals to vacate judgment and remand the case to the Texas Business Court for dismissal. The Mavericks sued the Stars to enforce the terms of partnership contracts the teams signed nearly 25 years ago.
President Donald Trump said he planned to nominate two candidates to federal district court judgeships in Texas, part of a broader slate of judicial picks he announced.
Dallas litigation boutique Dean Omar Branham Shirley belongs to a small group of firms nationwide that continue to reject Johnson & Johnson’s offers to resolve all its mesothelioma talc litigation through firm-level settlement agreements. The firm notched a $1.2 million win against J&J Friday night in New Orleans.