BEAUMONT – The Ninth Court of Appeals is set to review a State Farm Lloyds appeal, which seeks to wipe a $260k jury verdict on the grounds that the opinions of the plaintiff’s expert witnesses were “unreliable and inadmissible.” The appeal stems from a week long trial against State Farm that took place in May 2015.
AUSTIN – The Supreme Court of Texas has denied an appeal filed by the city of Dallas in connection with the city of Corsicana, Navarro County and Navarro College’s (collectively, Navarro) request to investigate a potential tortious interference claim against Dallas, which is likely to exceed the $200,000 claim threshold that limits the County Court at Law of Navarro County’s jurisdiction.
The Texas Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, striking down a state law requiring at least 750 hours of training in order to perform commercial “eyebrow threading”—a form of hair removal mainly performed in South Asian and Middle Eastern communities—has generated substantial notoriety for the court and for the Institute for Justice, which brought the lawsuit challenging the law.
BEAUMONT – The Ninth Court of Appeals recently stayed a Hurricane Rita lawsuit brought against the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, finding temporarily relief should be granted to prevent “undue prejudice.” Around a decade ago, plaintiff David James, who is represented by Houston attorney Steve Mostyn, filed suit against TWIA, Brush County Claims and adjuster David Gutierrez, alleging the defendants underpaid his Rita claim.
We have seen many examples of an “engaged judiciary” at the state court level, and it isn’t always pretty. Advocates of resuscitated constitutional protection for economic liberties—which were demoted to second-class status during the New Deal with the abandonment of the “substantive due process” doctrine in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937)—often argue in favor of a more rigorous standard of judicial review, across the board, when laws are challenged. This heightened judicial role is some
HOUSTON (SE Texas Record) – Oral arguments are scheduled for November before the Texas Supreme Court to review a lower court's ruling to compel discovery into attorney fees in multi-district litigation in a hail storm property damage coverage dispute.
AUSTIN – A report released earlier this month purportedly analyzed the influence of big business on state supreme courts, finding high courts with multimillion-dollar elections favor corporations.
AUSTIN – The fight against human trafficking, a modern day form of slavery, is the duty of every Texan, state Attorney General Ken Paxton said during a recent press conference at San Antonio Police Department’s Public Safety Headquarters.
George Will has enjoyed a long career as a public intellectual, an especially illustrious one for a Right-of-center figure. For over four decades, Will’s commentary has appeared in intellectual magazines and newspapers including National Review, the Washington Post, and Newsweek. He has many books to his name as well as a widely syndicated newspaper column, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977. A Ph.D. from Princeton, he’s also a familiar talking head on television, often sporting a bow tie
AUSTIN – A lawsuit has been filed against the state's governor and secretary of state regarding the alleged denial of equal opportunity for Latino voters in electing judges of their race.
The Jurisprudence of Civil Asset Forfeiture by MARK PULLIAM|Leave a Comment 3 Hand grabbing money bag The seizure by the state of assets connected to crime is a controversial subject. Asset forfeiture’s proponents—mainly law-enforcement agencies—view it as essential to fighting crime (especially the drug trade), because it deprives wrongdoers of the fruits of their illicit activities.
AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court ruled unanimously against oil and gas company Southwest Royalties, Inc., in a tax-refund case that will ultimately save the state and its taxpayers more than $4 billion.
AUSTIN – District 2 Rep. Dan Flynn said he is pleased with the recent opinion issued by the state’s attorney general reaffirming that residents of Texas all are subject to Texas law.
NEW ORLEANS – ExxonMobil Corp. recently asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit to uphold a district court order that awarded $3.67 million
to the company in an injury claim insurance coverage lawsuit filed against Electrical
Reliability Services Inc. (ERS) and Old Republic Insurance Co.
AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that a group of optometrists suing Wal-Mart over workday requirements were not entitled to civil penalties.
Beaumont Home Health Service recently filed a motion to dismiss a suit brought by a Port Arthur woman, who alleges she was negligently instructed to lift a 300-pound patient.
This column first appeared on Library of Law and Liberty Crumbling infrastructure in Detroit, MichiganCrumbling infrastructure in Detroit, Michigan Ever since people began migrating in large numbers from America’s rural areas to its urban areas in the 19th century, cities have presented unique challenges: sanitation, housing, transportation, education, public safety, and fire protection, to name just a few.
The long-awaited decision from the Texas Supreme Court in the school finance case, Morath v. Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition, was issued on May 13, 2016. (The case was argued over eight months earlier.) The court’s jargon-laden 100-page (!) decision can be summarized with this sentence: “Despite the imperfections of the current school funding regime, it meets minimum constitutional requirements.”
AUSTIN - Texas’ highest court upheld the state’s public funding system as constitutional on Friday, opining that it’s not the judiciary’s role to “second-guess whether our system is optimal.” Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement calling the ruling “a victory for Texas taxpayers and the Texas Constitution.” “The Supreme Court's decision ends years of wasteful litigation by correctly recognizing that courts do not have the authority to micromanage the state's school finance system,” Abbott said.
