Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In some cases, emails can spell out the terms of a contract. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled last week that landowners seeking compensation for a pipeline never constructed couldn't make that case. Janet Elliott explains.
The Texas Supreme Court Friday ended an eight-year legal battle between Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners over a proposed partnership in a pipeline project. In a unanimous opinion, the court effectively wiped out a $535 million judgment, saying the two companies never fully executed their partnership agreement in the first place.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a 1987 will handing down ownership of a Zapata County ranch included its mineral interests. Though it took him six charts to do so, Chief Justice Nathan Hecht showed that the mineral interests were distributed to her heirs exactly as Leonor Ramirez intended.
Not only does the ruling ban a former sales executive for Merritt Hawkins and Associates from conducting business in five states; it also increases the likelihood for MHA to recover damages in the trial court. Natalie Posgate explains.
Having once rejected this case involving an out-of-state insulation company, the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments last week reconsidering the threshold of Texas products liability jurisdiction. Janet Elliott reports.
The argument before SCOTX is whether two parties can create an interest in real property that remains vested long after the agreement - or even the parties themselves – cease to be. Janet Elliott reports.
In a sharply-worded decision, the appeals court tells a Chinese company it can’t avoid the consequences of an agreed-upon arbitration by simply ignoring it. The beneficiaries include Dallas-based alternative energy investors.
In the appellate world, 2019 was an interesting year. The Fifth Circuit and Texas Supreme Court resolved important questions of federal and state law, providing clarity on legal standards and raising new questions to be decided in the coming years. The Fifth Circuit, for example, ruled that the TCPA does not apply in federal diversity cases, refused to limit the scope of attorney immunity and expounded upon the detail required for findings of fact.
The Fifth Circuit's ruling in the closely-watched constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act is more notable for what it does not say than what it does. The 2-1 decision could lead to several different paths going forward. Will the new Trump appointees join forces en banc?
Does Fifth Circuit federal jurisdiction extend to other galaxies? The "God of the Earth Realm" says it does and alleges that U.S. and Louisiana officials are illegally holding the “Atakapa Indian de Creole Nation” in an eternal state of “pupilage.” This is an actual case.
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