On Wednesday, The Third Court of Appeals issued an opinion overturning a trial court summary judgment and rendering judgment in a case which involved the calculation of royalty fees under an oil and gas lease. Cause No. 03-04-00820-CV, Tana Oil & Gas Corp. v. Cernosek, et al.

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Yesterday, the Third Court of Appeals handed down two memorandum opinions. The first discussed a deferred ajudication of a truancy charge. Cause No. 03-03-00253-CV, Jim Walden v. Rex Baker, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, Hays County Yesterday’s other memorandum opinion affirms a trial court judgment dismissing a declaratory judgment action which sought to invalidate Austin’s new smoking ordinance. The VFW, which operates bingo hall

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The Texas Supreme Court issued two per curiam opinions this morning. The first invoked Rule 47.1 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure and remanded a case back to the 11th Court of Appeals. The Court found that the Court of Appeals’ opinion “failed to identify and expressly consider modification and waiver as distinct issues associated with the relief the parties requested from the arbitrator” and remanded the case for furth

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This morning, the Third Court of Appeals issued two opinions and a memorandum opinion. The first opinion affirmed the granting of a motion for summary judgment on the basis that a class of low income tenants of a housing complex did not have standing to complain that the buyer and seller of the property fraudulently misrepresented the condition of the propoerty to the FDIC in order to avoid having to provide housing to low income families. Brian,

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This morning, the Third Court of Appeals issued a memorandum opinion that addressed the issue of attorneys’ fees under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act. The Court affirmed a trial court decision to not award fees to a prevailing party on the basis that the declaratory relief obtained was redundant to other relief sought. In other words, the Court found that the dec action in question was added solely for the purpose of pleading a claim

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The Texas Supreme Court issued its latest school financing opinion today. Justice Hecht wrote for the majority while Justice Brister dissented. Technorati Tags: litigation, Texas Supreme Court, law

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This morning, the Texas Supreme Court issued two opinions. One explains the application of the voluntary payment rule in Texas, and the other explains the procedure by which one can appeal a small claims court judgment in Texas. Both probably warrant additional discussion on this blog, but we probably will not be able to get to it today. However, I wanted to alert readers to the opinions, in the event that someone has a case pending in which the

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By Rick Freeman In a recent article herein, Karl and Rob discussed the recent opinion by the Texas Supreme Court – In re Weekley Homes, L.P. In that decision the Texas Supreme Court compelled a non-signatory to a contract to submit her personal injury claim to arbitration pursuant to the home purchase contract. Basically, the Court says that if you gain benefits from the contract, you are subject to the contract’s arbitration clause. To quo

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The Texas Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion this morning reversing the Fourteenth Court of Appeals and a trial court, both of which had previously denied a special appearance in a suit involving the alleged wrongful denial of insurance claims. The Court held that the district court could not properly exercise specific personal jurisdiction over Commonwealth General Corporation (“CNC”) just because CNC was the sole shareholder

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The Third Court of Appeals issued three opinions this morning. The first, which came from a case against the City of San Angelo Fire Department, explains an affirmative defense to the Texas Tort Claims Act’s waiver of sovereign immunity for claims involving the use of a motor vehicle. While sovereign immunity is usually waived in Texas in cases where a governmental employee negligently operates a motor vehicle, there is no waiver in cases w

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