HOUSTON - Today, the 14th Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment win in favor of the Houston First Corporation, who was sued by the Republican Party of Texas over the cancellation of its 2020 convention.
The convention was supposed to be held from July 13, 2020, to July 18, 2020, at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The event was expected to draw around 6,000 people.
Less than a week beforehand, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the cancellation of the convention, citing COVID-19 concerns.
In response, the Republican Party filed a lawsuit against Turner, the city of Houston, Houston First Corporation, and Brenda Bazan, president of Houston First, for breach of contract.
Court records show Houston First filed a motion for traditional summary judgment, arguing the force majeure clause in the contract excused its performance as a matter of law. The trial court granted the motion and rendered a take-nothing judgment on the Republican Party’s claims.
A force majeure clause involves unforeseeable circumstances that prevent the contract’s fulfillment.
On the Republican Party’s motions, the trial court dismissed the claims against Turner, the city, and Bazan without prejudice before signing the judgment, court records state.
On appeal, the Republican Party argued Houston First did not prove any causal connection between the occurrences and its nonperformance under the agreement.
The 14th Court held that Houston First did not argue in its summary-judgment motion that its performance was affected by a force majeure occurrence.
“Here, Houston First omitted from its motion a required element for proving its force majeure defense,” the opinion states. “Accordingly, because not all necessary grounds were expressly presented to the trial court in the summary-judgment motion, we hold the trial court reversibly erred by granting the motion.”
The Republican Party is represented by attorneys Steven Mitby and Susanna Dokupil of Seiler Mitby.
Houston First is represented by Gregory Holloway and Leah Homan of Taylor, Book, Allen & Morris.
Appeals case No. 14-20-00744-CV