Karl Bayer's Disputing Blog » Texas Supreme Court

Texas Law on Covenants Not to Compete has Changed

By Rob Hargrove - October 20, 2006

As an initial matter, we would like to apologize for our absence for the last month and a half. From time to time the actual practice of law interferes with the blogging. We’ve been extremely busy for the last month or so, which is good, but which also prevented us from blogging. For a variety of reasons, however, things are more or less back to normal now. Which is a good thing, because this morning the Texas Supreme Court released two opi

Sovereign Immunity in Texas

By Rob Hargrove - June 30, 2006

Well, this morning’s Texas law explosion is explained in large part by a tremendously important sovereign immunity opinion the Texas Supreme Court handed down. The opinion reverses a 1970 Texas Supreme Court and holds that the “sue and be sued” language that shows up all the time in City charters and statutes and the like may not in fact be construed as a waiver of sovereign immunity from suit. The opinion also notes that the Le

Texas Law Explosion

By Rob Hargrove - June 30, 2006

The Texas Supreme Court issued twenty-five opinions this morning. That’s right. Twenty-five. At least two are arbitration-related, so we’ll handle those first. After that, I’m not sure what we’ll do, since a 25 opinion day is unprecedented in the history of this blog. Technorati Tags: litigation, Texas Supreme Court, law

Texas Supreme Court Issues Workplace Safety Opinion

By Rob Hargrove - May 12, 2006

This morning, the Texas Supreme Court reversed trial court and Tenth Court of Appeals findings that Kroger was liable for injuries one of its employees sustained while helping a customer load grocery bags into her car. The employee in question had placed one hand on the customer’s car door jamb while steadying the cart with his foot when the customer slammed her car door on his hand (the parking lot was on a slope, hence the foot-steadying)

Big Morning at the Texas Supreme Court

By Rob Hargrove - May 5, 2006

The Texas Supreme Court issued seven opinions this morning. We’re still sorting through them, and we will comment in some detail on the ones that are applicable to this blog, but I wanted to at least note them quickly in case any is of immediate interest to any of our readers. I would also note that, after a cursory review, none seems to have anything to do with the law as it pertains to arbitration, although a few certainly do merit furthe

Inverse Condemnation and Impairment of Access

By Rob Hargrove - April 28, 2006

The Texas Supreme Court issued one opinion this morning, explaining Texas law as it applies to inverse condemnation claims based on a state action that allegedly impairs a property owner’s access to his or her property. In this case, the Supreme Court held that since the property owner was entitled to an easement from the state to allow access to a public roadway, no impairment of access had occurred which would have given rise to a condemn

Judicial Disqualification

By Rob Hargrove - March 17, 2006

This morning, in addition to the arbitration case we’ve already discussed, the Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion in a judicial disqualification case, to which Justice Hecht dissented. As the court succinctly summarizes its holding: the question presented here is whether an appellate judge is disqualified because, unbeknownst to her, before she took the bench another attorney at her very large firm played a very small role in the early s

Friday, March 3, 2006

By Rob Hargrove - March 8, 2006

Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court issued two opinions, neither of which has anything to do with the law of arbitration. The first opinion discusses whether or not a city can be estopped from enforcing a zoning ordinance when its building official, unaware of the ordinance, mistakenly issued a permit which would have allowed construction in violation of the ordinance. In this case, and in all but “exceptional” cases according to the

Unsolicited Faxes in Texas

By Rob Hargrove - February 3, 2006

The Texas Supreme Court ruled this morning that Texans did not acquire the right to privately invoke the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) until the Texas Legislature amended the Business & Commerce Code to allow Texas court to hear private suits based on the TCPA on September 1, 1999. The TCPA, which was passed in 1991, allowed individuals to sue companies that send unsolicited facsimile advertisements “if

Friday, December 9, 2005

By Rob Hargrove - December 9, 2005

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