BEAUMONT — The U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas Beaumont Division has overturned a trial court's "setting aside of a judgment" for a Texas investment company involved in a lawsuit with realtors over breach of contract, common law fraud and trespass to try title.
According to the March 14 court filing, the case involves a 2016 lawsuit filed by Envo Specialities LLC, Steve Nguyen and Eileen Nguyen (Envo) against Brian McLain, CEO of M. McLain Investments over ownership of land in Port Neches, Texas.
McLain had responded to Envo's lawsuit through a petition filed with the district clerk. However, Envo alleged McLain was not a licensed attorney and that his response was "defective" and should not be treated as a response to Envo's claims.
Through court testimony by Eileen Nguyen, Envo said they paid for the property in question but that McLain or Investments did not supply a deed or clear title. McLain did refund a portion of Envo's cost of the land after finding out he could not produce a clean title, according to Nguyen's testimony.
After the court ruled in favor of Envo and awarded damages, McLain hired an attorney who filed a bill of review, asking the court to set aside the judgment arguing Envo "failed to serve citation on Investments."
The appeals court was tasked with ruling on whether the trial court "abused its discretion by setting aside judgment against Investments." During the litigation, Envo alleged it was "entitled" to have the court declare it owned the Texas property and asked the court to impose a "constructive trust" on the property but "never served citation in the suit it filed on Investments," according to the court filing.
The court wrote: "We conditionally grant Envo’s petition for writ of mandamus. We are confident the trial court will vacate its order granting the bill of review in Cause Number B-201,507. We are also confident the trial court will reinstate the default judgment that it rendered in Cause Number B-198,903. The writ will issue only if the trial court fails to comply with the court’s opinion."