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Texas
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May 16, 2013
DOJ Settles Police Discrimination Suit With Corpus Christi
The city of Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that it discriminated against female police applicants by screening them through a physical fitness test, federal officials said Wednesday.
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May 15, 2013
Jones Day Adds Porter Hedges Patent Litigator In Houston
Jones Day has hired away a veteran litigator from Porter Hedges LLP to join its intellectual property team in Houston, the firm announced Wednesday.
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May 15, 2013
Bass Pro Says EEOC Bullied It To Accept $30M Bias Settlement
A subsidiary of Bass Pro Inc. on Wednesday urged a Texas federal court to toss a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit alleging the sporting goods chain systematically excluded minorities from its workforce, arguing the agency rebuffed mandatory dispute resolution efforts and demanded $30 million before filing suit.
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May 15, 2013
GAO Orders Army To Rethink Health System Contract Bid
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has asked the U.S. Army to reconsider the exclusion of a staffing solutions contractor from a contract for registering nursing services for the San Antonio Military Health System, saying in a decision released Wednesday that the exclusion of the company was unreasonable.
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May 15, 2013
5th Circ. Affirms $44M Wellogix Jury Award In IP Fight
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a judgment against Accenture LLP for allegedly misappropriating the trade secrets of Wellogix Inc. by excluding it from developing and pitching new software requested by BP America Inc., ruling there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that Accenture acted with malice.
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May 15, 2013
Water Projects Spending Bill Sails Through Senate
The U.S. Senate approved a water resources law in an 83-14 vote Wednesday, sending the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water projects spending bill to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 2007 and clearing a Texas senator's amendment aimed at holding Mexico to water treaty obligations.
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May 15, 2013
Texas Lawmakers Scuttle Bill To Reform Energy Agency
Texas lawmakers on Tuesday killed legislation designed to promote transparency and eliminate perceived industry influence over the state’s regulator of oil and gas development by restricting campaign contributions to its elected leadership and imposing tougher enforcement standards.
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May 15, 2013
Oil Developer Can't Target Biz Partners, Texas Court Says
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday held an oil and gas developer waited too long to sue individuals in a partnership that failed to contribute operating expenses after the partnership itself was hit with a judgment for the contract breach.
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May 15, 2013
Medicare Doesn't Trump State Workers' Comp Law: 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a Medicare statute cannot trump a Texas law that requires preauthorization for workers' compensation expenses because Medicare indicates that claimants should exhaust their state law remedies first.
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May 14, 2013
Texas Sen. Cornyn Seeks To Push Mexico On Water Treaty
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Tuesday put forward an amendment to a water resources law calling on the Obama administration to force Mexico to uphold its water obligations to the U.S. under a 1944 water sharing treaty to stem a growing water shortage in his home state.
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May 14, 2013
Texas Court Rejects Sanctions Bids In Solar Engine Suit
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday refused to grant sanctions in a dispute over solar turbine engines planned for an Arabian Gulf project and rejected arguments that two parallel court proceedings should be consolidated in a single suit.
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May 14, 2013
Investors Can't Revive Suit Over Failed $60M Oil Rig Deal
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a pair of oil and gas investors could not recover a commission their broker made on a $60 million offshore oil rig acquisition after allegedly misappropriating the investors’ business plan to steer the deal to another client.
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May 14, 2013
Hospital's $350M Bond Issuance Suit Falls In 5th Circ.
A Louisiana hospital operator on Tuesday lost its suit over bond insurer National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.'s delay in deciding to approve its plan to issue $350 million in additional bonds, when the Fifth Circuit ruled their agreement allowed National Public to withhold approval.
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May 14, 2013
Architecture Firm Must Leave Sculpture Behind, Landlord Says
Architecture firm HKS Inc.'s current landlord sued the company Thursday in Texas state court to block it from taking a giant courtyard sculpture to its planned new digs when it moves out after 15 years at its current location.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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3 Ways To Leverage Internet Access During Trial
A survey of local rules for courthouses with available Wi-Fi has shown that no courts expressly prohibit the use of Internet by lawyers to gain information about the venire. Interestingly, at least one appellate court has held that it was error not to allow counsel to access the Internet during jury selection, say Derek Sarafa and William O'Neil of Winston & Strawn LLP.
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Whooping Crane Endangerment With A Water Rights Twist
In addition to holding regulators vicariously liable under the Endangered Species Act, the Aransas Project v. Shaw decision portends significant implications for any entity that obtains water under an appropriative water rights system. If upheld by the Fifth Circuit, the rationale by the Southern District of Texas could also extend to groundwater conservation districts that issue drilling permits for groundwater, say attorneys with Sedgwick LLP.
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How Lawyers Benefit From Early Neutral Evaluation
Early neutral evaluation usually asks a retired judge to consider one party’s case, as if preparing to rule on summary judgment or presiding over a bench trial. Effective evaluation can supply a reality check on a case — it gives the lawyer the gift of seeing the case as others see it, says James Rosenbaum, a panelist with JAMS and former U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota.
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New Facebook Notification: 'You've Been Served'
While the facts of FTC v. PCCare247 Inc. in the Southern District of New York are unique, this case and recently proposed Texas legislation may signal a U.S. trend toward considering, in appropriate circumstances, the use of social media to reach foreign litigants, says Jason Gonder of Haynes and Boone LLP.
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Inside EPA's Plan For Startups, Shutdowns And Malfunctions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed a state implementation plan requiring 36 states to revise their provisions governing excess emissions associated with emission unit or control device startups, shutdowns and malfunction events. The agency has effectively offered to split the difference between the goals of environmental groups and industry, says Stacie Fletcher of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
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5th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Supreme Court's Till Decision
The Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in In re Texas Grand Prairie Hotel Realty sends a clear warning to secured creditors seeking to object to a proposed cramdown rate — don’t limit yourself to the “prime-plus” formula from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Till or you will likely be forced to accept an interest rate calculated by taking the national prime rate and adding a “smallish number picked out of a hat," says James Grogan of Paul Hastings LLP.
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Forum Selection Clauses In The Intra-Corporate Litigation Era
The lessons of the Northern District of California ruling in Galaviz v. Berg inform that corporations will do well to ensure that shareholders consent to the adoption of a forum selection provision within their governing documents. This can be achieved in a few ways, says Onome Okpewho of McCarter & English LLP.
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Ins And Outs Of Nonparty Discovery In Texas Arbitration
Given the strong public policy considerations against nonparty discovery in arbitration proceedings, considerations that have split the federal court system over whether it is ever allowable, Texas courts should be particularly mindful of protecting nonparties when someone is trying to compel them to participate in a private proceeding to which they never agreed, says Adam Schramek of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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And Now A Word From The Panel ...
One of the most fascinating facets of watching the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is trying to guess not simply whether an MDL will be created, but where it will be located. Take, for example, In re Mirena IUD Products Liability and Marketing Litigation, slated to be heard at the March 21 hearing, says Alan Rothman of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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5th Circ. Stirs The Artificial Impairment Pot
The Fifth Circuit decision in Western Real Estate Equities LLC v. Village at Camp Bowie I LP may renew debate among the circuit courts and bankruptcy courts regarding how far a plan proponent may go in engineering an impaired class of creditors to cram down a plan, say Luc Despins and Robert Winter of Paul Hastings LLP.