News published on Southeast Texas Record in November 2017

HOUSTON – In a decision filed Nov. 15, the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss or transfer a patent infringement case filed by Nichia Corp.

HOUSTON – The 14th Court of Appeals of Texas has affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment in favor of a defendant accused of negligence in performing a background check on a potential employee.

BEAUMONT – The Court of Appeals of the 9th District of Texas at Beaumont affirmed a judgment in favor of an insurance company in a case involving damages to a home from Hurricane Ike.

HOUSTON – A Houston man claims “daily hostility” he experienced as an employee of the Life Gift Organ Donation Center prompted him to resign.

For years, patent assertion entities have filed patent lawsuits against retailers in federal court in Texas. The Supreme Court’s recent decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC may give retailers the ability to insist they defend such lawsuits on their home turf.

I have been thinking about Robert Bork recently, prompted in part by the 30th anniversary of his rejection by the Senate on November 23, 1987. Next month will mark the fifth anniversary of his passing on December 19, 2012. Bork was profoundly influential in conservative legal circles when I graduated from law school in 1980 and started paying closer attention to constitutional theory. I was impressed with both Bork’s scholarly writings and his more polemical articles in publications such as National Review. A 1982 essay he wrote in NR, entitled “The Struggle Over the Role of the Court,” reprinted in his 2008 anthology A Time to Speak, remains timely—even prescient. Ramesh Ponnuru has called Bork’s 1990 book, The Tempting of America, written in the wake of his confirmation defeat, “the most important popular statement of judicial conservatism yet produced.”

MARSHALL – While FedEx may advertise that it’s “everywhere you need to be,” apparently that slogan also applies to judicial venue, at least when the litigation is brought in the Eastern District of Texas – a preferred venue for patent suit filers.

Now she knows how his ex-wife feels. Houston lawyer Diane St. Yves began an attorney-client relationship with David Lancaster in 2011 and lived to regret it, eventually having to go to court to dissolve that relationship and move on.

HOUSTON – A Harris County man alleges his leg was injured at a Houston car wash because the business failed to maintain the premises.

HOUSTON – A Winnie individual formerly employed by a Baytown warehouse alleges she was subjected to discrimination because she is older than 40.

HOUSTON – A Harris County man alleges that he was injured while working aboard a crane barge because he wasn't provided a safe working environment.

HOUSTON – An Indiana man alleges he was injured in the parking lot of a Houston auto repair facility because it failed to manage its employees.

HOUSTON – A South Carolina consumer alleges a Houston-based debt collector's letter failed to state the name of the creditor.

HOUSTON – A Humble woman has filed a suit against a physician and medical facility over a surgical procedure that allegedly failed.

GALVESTON – A Galveston County consumer alleges he has been without reliable plumbing all of 2017 because of the actions of a San Antonio plumber.

GALVESTON – A construction materials supplier alleges it was not paid for supplies it sold for use in a League City project.

HOUSTON – A shop worker alleges he was not paid the appropriate wage rate for overtime work.

HOUSTON – A Spring man alleges an exhaust leak on his vehicle was not repaired in a good and workmanlike manner.

BEAUMONT – A bedspread placed in an aisle of a Kohl’s Department Store nearly two years ago “posed an unreasonable risk of harm” to shoppers, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

HOUSTON – A former employee of a Mexican restaurant in Houston alleges that he was not paid the appropriate rate for overtime work.