5th Circuit Weighing Appeals in Forest Park Medical Fraud Convictions
Seven imprisoned defendants, including four physicians, make their case for reversal before appellate court.
Litigation Roundup: SCOTUS Cert Petition Filed in Williamson Co. Wrongful Conviction Case, Antero Secures $11.9M Final Judgment, ITC Gets Oil Pollution Act Claims Tossed
This week’s Litigation Roundup features a fight between the Houston Astros and Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar over about $462,000 in taxes assessed against the ball club, a $3.3 million jury win for the buyers of a North Dallas office complex and a second bite at the apple for a Louisiana federal judge who enjoined a Biden administration order pausing oil and gas lease sales.
Hurricane Harvey Litigation Still Winding Through Courts Five Years Later
In the five years since Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston region, courts have been wrangling the massive amount of litigation spawned by the storm, brought by property owners seeking damages for the flooding that in many instances took everything they had. Storm cleanup and later the COVID-19 pandemic caused some roadblocks to resolution, but time hasn’t run out for those still waiting to make a claim.
Jury Says No Damages In Citgo Desalination Plant Suit
A major point of contention in the case was whether Rothwell Energy Services’ president and director, Juan Hurtado, was the actual nephew of the former head of Citgo, Nelson Martinez, who later served as Venezuela’s oil minister and died in prison after being swept up in the PDVSA corruption probe. Rothwell’s attorneys argued Hurtado referred to him as “uncle” but had no blood relation with the close family friend, while Citgo’s attorneys argued that relationship was proof of impropriety in the deal.
News Report: Uvalde Victims’ Families to Sue Law Enforcement, Gun Supplier
KSAT TV in San Antonio reports that several of the families of victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary school shooting in May plan to file a lawsuit seeking billions of dollars against the law enforcement agencies involved in the Uvalde tragedy and the maker and seller of the gun used in the mass shooting.
Insurers Don’t Have to Defend Blue Bell in Shareholder Suit
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Monday sided with Discover Property & Casualty Company and The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut and agreed the commercial general liability policies didn’t require it to defend the breach of fiduciary duty claims. Judge Pitman wrote that Texas courts haven’t squarely addressed the issue presented in this lawsuit.
CDT Roundup: 12 Deals, 8 Firms, 152 Lawyers, $2B
If you need some perspective on the wild swings in the oil and gas industry over the past few years, look no further than Plano-based Denbury Resources. Denbury, which sought bankruptcy protection just a few years ago, is suddenly looking prosperous enough to be scouting for a viable suitor, according to Bloomberg. Claire Poole reports on the Denbury rebound, as well as a slate of a dozen deals reported to the Roundup last week.
Elite Law Firms Dominate Corp. Deal Tracker Law Firm M&A Rankings
Forty-four corporate law firms with offices in Texas reported that their lawyers in Texas played a substantive role in representing buyers, sellers, targets, conflicts committees, financial institutions and other third parties in various kinds of transactions in which assets were bought, sold or merged. A handful of elite law firms – Sidley, Kirkland, V&E, Latham, Gibson Dunn, to name a few – topped The Texas Lawbook’s exclusive Corporate Deal Tracker law firm rankings for the first half of 2022. Several Texas-headquartered corporate firms also experienced a strong six months, including Haynes and Boone, Baker Botts, Akin Gump and Locke Lord. Four law firms had Texas lawyers who worked on nearly three-quarters of all the transactions that had deal values of $500 million or more.
Litigation Roundup: Law Firm Draws Suit Over Charity Golf Tournament Injury, Distiller Moves To End Texas Lotto’s TM Claim, CenterPoint Hit With $15.4M Injury Verdict
This week’s edition of Litigation Roundup features another chapter in a legal malpractice lawsuit against Haynes and Boone that’s already made it to the Texas Supreme Court, a Fifth Circuit panel striking down a “vague” nationwide injunction that would have allowed oil and gas lease sales to resume and a retired dentist suing a Houston restaurant after being allegedly assaulted by its bouncer.
Texas Lawyers to Feast on New Energy Law
Energy transition attorneys are gearing up for an uptick innovation investment and M&A activity expected to be spurred by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA, signed yesterday by President Biden, contains $369 billion of climate and clean energy provisions, as well as $60 billion for environmental justice initiatives and provides incentives for substantial investments in rural communities. Significant to the Texas economy, the new law significantly rewrites the tax incentives for renewable energy and climate change mitigation under the federal tax code.