Two Defendants Deny Plot to Fire Quitman Police Captain
The other two defendants in Terry Bevill’s wrongful-termination suit are listed as potential witnesses in the ongoing jury trial before U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III in Sherman.
Quitman Police Captain Didn’t Deserve to be Fired, His Former Chief Testifies
Had it been up to him, Ex-Chief Kelly Cole said, his second-in-command “probably would have gotten couple of days off” for violating policy by signing an affidavit stating that he didn’t think his friend could get a fair trial in Wood County.
SCOTX Hears Guardianship Divorce Case to Open Term
The $32 million estate of wealthy Laredo lawyer and businessman Carlos Benavides is at the center of the battle over a divorce initiated by his daughter and guardian. His fourth wife argues that her challenge to the divorce decree was not mooted by Benavides’ death amidst the appeal and that Texas law does not allow a guardian to petition for divorce on behalf of a ward. The daughter says that spousal lack of care for her mentally incapacitated father caused her to remove Benavides from his marital home. The Supreme Court this week is hearing other high-profile cases involving police immunity, defamation and professional discipline over a filing contesting the 2020 election.
Fired Quitman Police Captain Was Not the Victim of a Conspiracy, Lawyers for Defendants in His Federal Suit Say
Terry Bevill, the fired officer, testifies that he was nearly ruined in the seven years since he signed an affidavit saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County. Defense counsel say he was terminated not out of retribution, but because he violated Quitman city policies.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 16 Firms, 168 Lawyers, $20.7B
Deals are all about numbers: enterprise value, debt, return on investment, EBITDA, yield, etc. The CDT this week looks at a few of the deals from last week whose terms were undisclosed but suggest values that could make a week look far better than it does on paper. That, along with the usual summaries of Texas-related deals reported last week — whether they had values attached or not.
Trial Underway in Patent Infringement Case Against Samsung Electronics
California-based startup company Mojo Mobility says Samsung Electronics flagship devices infringe on five of its wireless charging patents. McKool Smith lawyers representing Mojo and Samsung’s legal team led by Paul Hastings are in trial this week in Marshall.
Litigation Roundup: Court Wins for Porter Hedges, Holland & Knight and Pro Se Plaintiff Against Houston Methodist
The Texas Lawbook has two reporters in federal courts covering jury trials this week — Bruce Tomaso in Sherman following a civil rights trial and Krista Torralva in Marshall covering a big patent dispute. More from those cases this week.
But this week’s Litigation Roundup focuses on three court cases that resulted in two victories for the defense counsel and a federal appellate reversal for a white pro se plaintiff in a race discrimination lawsuit.
Transocean Raises Questions About Plaintiffs’ Healthcare Billing Schemes in Hurricane Zeta Litigation
The first of two-dozen workers aboard the Deepwater Asgard suing Transocean and other companies for ordering them to keep the giant rig operating even though it was in the direct path of Hurricane Zeta in October 2020 get to tell their harrowing stories to a Houston jury starting next week.
But lawyers for Transocean and the other defendants claim in new documents filed Sept. 5 that they have discovered a secret financial scheme involving the plaintiffs’ lawyers, their medical expert witnesses and a private equity firm that is allegedly providing funding for the litigation. The defense attorneys claim the scheme taints the medical testimony of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
Challenge to 15th COA Transfer is Filed
The jurisdiction of the state’s new Fifteenth Court of Appeals has been challenged by a party in a dispute that had been on appeal before the First Court of Appeals in Houston. A total of 88 cases have been transferred to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals.
After 7 Years, Fired Quitman Police Captain Will Have His Day in Federal Court
When Terry Bevill signed an affidavit in 2017 saying he didn’t think a friend could get a fair trial in Wood County in East Texas, he didn’t know he was signing the death certificate for his law enforcement career.
On Monday, a federal jury will determine if Bevill was wrongly fired.