Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Baker Hughes said on Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Chart Industries for $210 a share in cash, or about $13.6 billion, as the Houston energy technology company furthers its expansion in liquified natural gas and data centers. Also Tuesday, Irving-based Flowserve Corp. said it terminated its offer to acquire Chart because the Baker Hughes offer is a “superior proposal.”
WhereverTV accused Comcast of infringing a patent covering its interactive program guide and was trying the case before a jury in April 2023. But before the jury heard closing arguments or began deliberations, a federal judge in Florida agreed with Comcast that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, ending the case. Now, the Federal Circuit Court has remanded the case for a second jury trial.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, Skechers draws a patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas over its line of slip-on shoes, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines is accused of race discrimination by a doctor who was removed from a flight, and the Fifth Court of Appeals clarifies the rules on supersedeas bonds in an appeal from a $30.7 million jury award.
Massachusetts-based Desktop Metal Operating and 15 of its affiliated companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas.
The week ending July 26 saw 15 transactions for just over $3 billion, which doesn't sound like much. The volume is akin to the week before, in which 14 deals were reported for $6 billion. But both pale against the 19 transactions for $16.4 billion reported last year. The plain truth is that transactions in M&A dwindled in Q2 and have stayed dwindled in the first few weeks of Q3. But take heart; Q2 was the weakest quarter in Texas M&A deals last year and the year before. But there was plenty of diversity in the mix.
Seadrill Partners and Seadrill Limited — the offshore drilling rig operators whose bankruptcy proceedings are among the 33 cases where the U.S. Trustee’s Office is trying to claw back millions in fees awarded to Jackson Walker — asked the court on Friday to approve its $485,000 settlement with the Dallas-based law firm.
After nearly 12 years of litigating, it took exactly one day of trial testimony for Jim Crane and Drayton McLane to settle their $440 million fight over the sale of the Houston Astros and a stake in a regional sports network. The Texas Lawbook’s Michelle Casady has the details from the courtroom and more.
Both Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Winston & Strawn associates saw the Cicis trial as a valuable training opportunity. The associates argued motions and cross-examined witnesses on the stand.
Two heavyweights of the Houston business community, Jim Crane and Drayton McLane, were at their respective tables in the well of the courtroom as a panel of nine women and six men —12 jurors and three alternates — filed into the jury box in the Ceremonial Courtroom on the 17th floor of the Harris County Civil District Courthouse Thursday morning for the first day of testimony in a case where $440 million is at stake.
The jury’s decision reached Wednesday is the second nine-digit damages verdict in three months favoring Headwater, which is led by inventor Greg Raleigh.
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