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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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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On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion granting Petition for Writ of Mandamus compelling a non-signatory to an arbitration clause to arbitrate personal injury claims the Court itself admits do not stem from the contract which contains the arbitration clause. The plaintiff in the underlying case asserted personal injury claims against a home builder, claiming that she developed asthma from the dust created by the home builder

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This morning, the Third Court of Appeals issued an opinion in an appeal by the Bexar Metropolitan Water District of a decision by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to approve the City of Bulverde’s application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity for water utility service. In this case, the administrative law judge recommended against the certificate, but the commission disagreed and granted the certificate, the

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Today, the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion granting a petition for writ of mandamus pertaining to a nursing home’s claim that certain documents were privileged from discovery based on four distinct asserted privileges: the medical committee privilege; the medical peer review committee privilege; the nursing peer review committee privilege; and the quality assessment and assurance privilege. The Court grants the petition for writ

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Today, the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion reversing a decision by the Dallas Court of Appeals which in turn had reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a nursing home resident’s claims on limitations grounds. In the underlying case, the resident alleged that she was sexually assaulted in a nursing home and asserted what she characterized as premises liability claims against the home. The claims were more than five years old

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