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Texas
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May 14, 2013
Dell Accuses Toshiba, Sony Of Fixing Prices For Disk Drives
Dell Inc. on Monday struck Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and other major electronics companies with an antitrust lawsuit in Texas federal court, accusing them of engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix prices in the market for optical disk drives.
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May 14, 2013
Texas Sens. Pass Bill Limiting Insurers' 3rd-Party Recovery
The Texas Senate on Tuesday passed a bill clamping down on health insurers’ practice of aggressively collecting damages from third parties that caused injuries to insured patients by making them share in attorneys' fees, sending the measure to Gov. Rick Perry for approval.
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May 14, 2013
$223M Medicare Fraud Sweep Nets 89 Across US
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that 89 individuals, including doctors and nurses, have been indicted across the U.S. for allegedly orchestrating $223 million worth of Medicare fraud schemes involving kickbacks to patients, surgeries that weren’t performed and massages billed as physical therapy.
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May 13, 2013
Sunoco Partnership Preps Eaglebine Pipeline In Texas
Sunoco Logistics Partners LP, a publicly traded partnership that owns and operates oil pipelines and storage and transportation buildings, is seeking customers for its Eaglebine Express crude petroleum pipeline in Texas, Sunoco Logistics said Monday.
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May 13, 2013
Justices Urged To Take Up Trademark Row Over Greek Paddles
A Texas craftsman who sells ceremonial paddles aimed at fraternities and sororities last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift an injunction barring him from advertising using the Greek organizations’ trademarks, arguing the groups waited too long to sue and shouldn’t be entitled to relief.
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May 13, 2013
Texas Lawmakers Push Health-Data Modernization Bills
Texas lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to legislation designed to modernize medical data management and are pushing another pair of measures that aim to make the insurance preapproval process for prescription drugs and other health care benefits easier on patients.
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May 13, 2013
Texas Judge Punts On Cement-Dust Coverage Suit
A Texas federal judge has declined to rule on an effort by Continental Insurance Co. to dodge payment of legal fees incurred by cement manufacturing companies fighting more than four dozen pollution lawsuits, finding that the dispute should be considered in California.
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May 13, 2013
Physicians Seek Supreme Court's Take On $43M Fraud Ruling
Two physicians have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on their criminal Medicare fraud case, saying although the Fifth Circuit nixed a $43 million judgment against them, it failed to reimburse them for claims that the federal government inappropriately argued were medically unnecessary.
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May 13, 2013
Contractors Group Slams EEOC Same-Sex Harassment Claim
A general contractors trade group on Friday urged the full Fifth Circuit to reject the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's claims that a construction company supervisor's use of gay epithets toward a straight male iron worker constituted sexual harassment.
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May 13, 2013
Texas Health Co. Loses Appeal For Workers' Comp Arbitration
Trisun Healthcare LLC can’t rely on an arbitration agreement an employee signed with one of its affiliates to avoid a lawsuit over an alleged workplace injury, a Texas appeals court held Thursday.
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May 13, 2013
HP, Dell Accused Of Infringing Touch-Screen Patent
Texas-based Touchscreen Gestures LLC hit Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. with patent lawsuits in Texas federal court on Friday, the latest in a string of suits filed by the company claiming infringement of touch-screen technology.
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May 10, 2013
Clement Brief Backs BP In Row Over $8B Deepwater Settlement
Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement on Friday filed a Fifth Circuit amicus brief on behalf of accounting experts who support BP PLC’s allegations that a judge misconstrued the terms of its $7.8 billion settlement with Gulf of Mexico businesses claiming losses from the Deepwater Horizon spill, allowing an administrator to overpay them.
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May 10, 2013
Google Search Targeted In Data-Retrieval Patent Suit
Google Inc. was hit with a suit Friday in Texas federal court brought by a Taiwanese research institution that claims the search engine giant’s Google Search and other products infringe its information retrieval system patent.
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May 10, 2013
Deepwater Securities Suits Belong In UK, BP Tells Court
BP PLC asked a Texas federal judge Friday to toss suits brought by public retirement funds in multidistrict litigation over losses they suffered on the London Stock Exchange following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, arguing the cases should be heard in the U.K.
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May 10, 2013
Texas Trade Secrets Law Gets Business-Friendly Upgrade
The Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, recently signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry, strengthens trade secret protections for businesses and makes subtle changes to existing common law that experts say will add certainty to litigation and bring earlier settlements.
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May 10, 2013
Oil Co. Sees Claims Trimmed In $15M Katrina Coverage Row
Oil field operator Cox Operating LLC on Friday lost its bad faith claim against an insurer from whom it has been seeking up to $15 million for damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
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May 10, 2013
Exxon, QPI Outline Export Plans For $10B Texas LNG Terminal
Exxon Mobil Corp. and state-run Qatar Petroleum International have worked out a formal plan to export 15.6 million metric tons a year of liquefied natural gas from their proposed $10 billion terminal facility at Sabine Pass, Texas, according to a Thursday statement.
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May 10, 2013
Texas Officials Launch Criminal Probe Of Plant Blast
The Texas Department of Public Safety on Friday said it has ordered a criminal investigation into the April 17 West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion that leveled the facility and left the surrounding town in rubble.
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May 10, 2013
Icahn, Southeastern Put Up Bid Against $24B Dell Buyout
In the latest chapter in an on-going battle for control of Dell Inc., the company's two largest shareholders — Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc. — made an offer Friday challenging an earlier $24.4 billion private equity-backed bid and threatening legal action.
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May 10, 2013
TPG Rakes In $305M In Shriram Transport Finance Stake Sale
Texas-based TPG Capital unloaded its 10 percent interest in Indian commercial vehicle finance firm Shriram Transport Finance Co. Ltd., the buyer said Friday, raking in $305 million — a nearly sevenfold return on its initial buy-in to the company.
Expert Analysis
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Royalty Owners And The Duty To Discover
In 2011, the Texas Supreme Court issued three opinions in which the claims of royalty for mineral owners were barred by the statute of limitations, continuing the general notion that the lessor/royalty owner is on notice of matters that could be discovered by a search of publicly available matters so that the statute of limitations starts to run when such material should have been discovered, say attorneys with SNR Denton.
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An Impartial Appraisal Of Insurance Policy Requirements
Jurisdictions vary in how they evaluate issues of impartiality and the permissible scope of appraisal. The U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas' ruling in Stateside Enterprises Inc. v. Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co. provides some guidance in this area, but leaves other questions open for a later date, says Jonathan Mutch of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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New Requirements For Audit Committees Of Texas Insurers
In 2010, the Texas Department of Insurance adopted a regulation concerning the independent audits of financial statements of insurers and health maintenance organizations. While the regulation was passed over a year ago, it had a phase-in transition period and is now starting to impact Texas domestic insurers and their corporate governance structure, says Barry Senterfitt of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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Predictive Coding — Cost Savings If Investment Is Made
As a discovery tool, predictive coding — recently approved by a court for the first time in Da Silva Moore v. Publicis Groupe — offers obvious opportunities for cost-savings and efficiencies. But it requires an upfront investment of time and cooperation for proper implementation, say Nicole Bearce Albano and Ryan Cooper of Lowenstein Sandler PC.
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State Split: Transfer Restrictions In Commercial Leases
Attorneys should be aware of an important split of authority among the states over whether or not a landlord may unreasonably withhold its consent to the transfer of a tenant’s interest in a commercial real estate lease in the absence of language expressly prohibiting the landlord from doing so, says Brian Lauter of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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Common Law V. UTSA: The Last States Standing
Noting and planning for dissimilarities in the trade secret jurisprudence among different states — particularly states that have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act versus those holding onto individualized bodies of common law — is critical to ensuring compliance with trade secret law and successful litigation of trade secret claims, say Michael Bunis and Anita Spieth of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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Challenging Oil, Gas Leases Is A Team Sport In Texas
A case decided by the Beaumont Court of Appeals in Texas in February 2012, Kodiak Resources Inc. v. Smith, may result in making the practice of taking top leases and challenging the validity of the underlying leases and units more difficult by requiring the joinder of all parties to that lease or unit, say Mark Robeck and Jason Newman of Baker Botts LLP.
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Must-Have Performance Metrics For Law Departments
Creating a meaningful performance measurement program is one of the biggest challenges for law department managers. Although no two law departments are exactly alike, there are four categories of performance metrics that every law department should consider because they most often drive the desired results, says Rebecca Thorkildsen of HBR Consulting LLC.
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Another Court Weighs In On Stern V. Marshall
In Technical Automation Services Corp. v. Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp., the Fifth Circuit’s sua sponte review of the impact of Stern v. Marshall upon the constitutional authority of magistrate judges raises the possibility of yet another pitfall toward obtaining a final judgment on any cases — bankruptcy or otherwise — involving state law issues, say attorneys with Foley & Lardner LLP.
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Considerations When Shelling Out Oil, Gas Royalties
The Texas Supreme Court's December 2011 decision in Shell Oil v. Ross should be a positive development for operators, as it will make it more difficult for royalty owners to reach back in time and claim underpayment, but the opinion serves as a cautionary note as well for oil and gas companies that frequently rely on business partners to correctly account for production and other issues, says Brannon Robertson of King & Spalding LLP.