Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Anadarko has emerged the winner in a coverage clash with its surplus liability insurers as the Texas Supreme Court ruled last week that the underwriters are contractually obligated to pay Anadarko’s $112.5 million defense costs related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Lawbook's Janet Elliott has the details.
After spending $22 million on some dry holes in North Texas, Barrow-Shaver Resources Co. jumped at a $27.7 million offer for its development rights. But one of 32 parties blew up the deal by asking $5 million for its approval. Now the Texas Supreme Court is being asked to resolve a question of industry use vs. oil and gas tradition. Janet Elliott explains.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed a trial court ruling that determined one of infamous Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford’s largest investors received a $79 million fraudulent transfer in good faith.
A federal appeals court handed Nevada-based VirnetX its latest win Tuesday in its intellectual property feud with Apple when it affirmed a $439 million judgment that stemmed from a September 2016 jury trial in East Texas.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit filed in East Texas against Schiff Hardin charging that the firm had misrepresented facts to an insurance company during its defense of a products liability lawsuit. Most of the claims had already been dismissed, but the appeals court said the trial judge erred in a novel interpretation of Texas case law.
The Eleventh Court of Appeals ended 2018 by tossing $43.1 million of a nearly $50 million West Texas jury award, ruling that a group of West Texas oil and gas investors who called themselves "partners" had no partnership at all. Allen Pusey explains.
In yet another show of support for mandatory arbitration, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that a duly assigned arbitrator has the power to decide a dispute, even when it involves conflicting court orders. The Lawbook's Janet Elliott explains.
Newly-elected judges on the Texas courts of appeals may soon revisit a firmly rooted – albeit faded – distinction between factual and legal sufficiency as they grapples with their differences with pro-business justices on the Texas Supreme Court. Specifically, courts of appeals may be able to limit state Supreme Court review by deciding cases based on factual sufficiency of the evidence. The Texas Lawbook has details.
When Houston Astros owner Jim Crane and another investor bought a new aircraft for $19.85 million in 2010, they apparently expected it to be...well, new. When they discovered two years later it had been equipped with a used left engine with a troubled history, they sued. Now the SCOTX is weighing whether the evidence supports their $8M verdict.
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis said “questions of jurisdiction are questions of power." That observation provides a useful lens to examine how three sentences from recent opinions by the Dallas Court of Appeals involve questions of power, and how they may illustrate areas where the newly-constituted Texas appellate courts may take new approaches.
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