Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Rounding out appointments to the newly created business courts, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Friday Sofia Androgué and Grant Dorfman will be the inaugural appointees to the Houston division.
Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed two judges each to the new business courts in San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin, leaving only the division in Houston without inaugural appointees.
The governor made appointments to the San Antonio court Thursday, while on Wednesday he appointed the judges in Dallas and Fort Worth and on Tuesday he appointed jurists to the newly-created Fifteenth Court of Appeals as well as the Austin division of the business courts.
A federal jury in Dallas decided Michaels Stores did not infringe on a small business’ paint-by-numbers art kit or engage in unfair competition. Dallas lawyers with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr took the case less than three months before the trial began.
A settlement has been reached in the state’s first trial alleging Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder contained cancer-causing asbestos. Also on Tuesday, 43 states including Texas, reached a $700 million settlement with J&J, ending claims that the company was deceptively marketing its talc powder products as safe.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, U.S. District Judge Ada Brown gets her first crack at handling multidistrict litigation after 12 putative class action lawsuits over the AT&T data breach are transferred to her, the former president of a Texas energy company goes to prison and a trio of attorneys representing Southwest Airlines gets a stay on an order that they undergo religious liberty training.
Dean Omar Branham Shirley represented an Oregon mother of three who said her mesothelioma diagnosis came after years of using J&J’s baby powder. The company is facing lawsuits across the country from plaintiffs who claim J&J knew cancer-causing asbestos was turning up in its baby powder for decades but didn’t warn consumers or the FDA.
In Amarillo, Austin, and just recently Fort Worth, the party resisting pre-suit discovery under Rule 202 can (in the right circumstances) file a motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), requiring the petitioner to meet the TCPA’s evidentiary hurdles or risk paying the other side’s fees and getting sanctioned, all while potentially engaging in a protracted process that spoils the entire purpose of Rule 202 petitions. But both Houston Courts of Appeals have rejected the applicability of the TCPA to pre-suit discovery. Until the Texas Supreme Court resolves the split, where a pre-suit petition for discovery is filed can have a dramatic impact on the outcome.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Samsung beats back a patent suit seeking half a billion dollars in damages after arguing the plaintiff had unclean hands, a jury in Marshall renders a $445 million infringement verdict and we detail what led American Airlines to replace Wilson Elser as its outside counsel in a lawsuit involving a bathroom recording of a 9-year-old girl.
Invoking The Simpsons, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr on Thursday issued an opinion denying a request from plaintiffs’ lawyers who represented Fluor Corporation shareholders in a securities class action to tack a 1.9 multiplier on their fee award in the lawsuit that resulted in a $33 million settlement.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, an improper jury argument wipes out a $222 million award on appeal, a Dallas firm notches a $15 million verdict in a Connecticut mesothelioma case and the Texas Supreme Court declines to revive a lawsuit a couple dozen cities brought against streaming giants Disney+, Hulu and Netflix.
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