Insight & Commentary on Texas Appellate Law
To all you appellate gurus out there, here’s an appellate procedure question: When does the court of appeals’ mandate issue when the Texas Supreme Court has denied a petition for review and subsequently denied a motion for rehearing of the petition for review?
TRAP 18 controls issuance of the appellate mandate. The timetable is based…
In a longstanding dispute over which agency has the authority to regulate engineers, the Austin Court of Appeals recently held that the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (Society) lacked standing to bring suit against the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners (Board) on behalf of its members because it failed to meet the test for associational standing. …
We elect our judges in Texas. We can debate the pros and cons of selecting judges by election, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are in the middle of an election now. Early voting goes through Friday, October 31st. You can vote at any early voting location and all you need to vote is a valid driver’s license. If you can’t vote early or don’t want to, Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th. To find your polling place for election day, follow this link.
Under this system of judicial selection, the best way to ensure selection of quality judges is an informed electorate. To that end, here’s a list of appellate candidates for judicial office with links to help you better educate yourselves.
On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, the Tarrant County Appellate Law Section will be honoring retiring Justice Dixon Holman. The luncheon to honor Justice Holman will take place at the Petroleum Club beginning at noon.
The cost is $20 for members and $22 for non-members and walk-ins.
RSVP to Sherry at 817-338-4092 or sherry@tarrantbar.org
A plaintiff sued a defendant for breach of contract. Instead of serving the defendant, the plaintiff served the Secretary of State. As the time for answering lapsed, the trial court sent notice of dismissal to the parties (according to Texas Rule 165a ) warning them of dismissal if no answer was filed by a specified deadline.…
There are three holdings in DiGiuseppe v.Lawler that are noteworthy. First, the Texas Supreme Court, reaffirms the principle that a party who obtains a favorable judgment need not file a separate notice of appeal to preserve its right to judgment on a lesser alternate ground of recovery in the event an appellate court reverses the trial…
The Texarkana Court of Appeals held that a no-evidence motion for summary judgment need only identify the challenged element in order to comply with Rule 166a(i). Plaintiff argued that the motion must list all of the elements and identify the challenged element(s). The court of appeals disagreed and held the motion sufficient if it "merely reference[s] the element…
A divided panel of the Amarillo Court of Appeals held that a dismissal with prejudice operates as an adjudication on the merits for purposes of res judicata even if the trial court erred by including the phrase "with prejudice" in the dismissal order. The majority followed Amarillo precedent while the dissent called for it to be overruled. Because the Amarillo…
Welcome to the Cowles & Thompson Appellate Blog. We created this blog with the goal of providing useful information to civil appellate practitioners and to the public at large. We anticipate that we will be posting information relating to significant appellate opinions from Texas appellate courts (inclusive of the Supreme Court of Texas). Of course, we will also call attention to U.S. Supreme Court opinions…
In this mandamus action, the Eastland Court of Appeals held that federal tax returns are not relevant or material to the issue of the defendant’s net worth. While the court of appeals held that a plaintiff seeking exemplary damages need not make a prima facie showing of entitlement of exemplary damages in order to obtain discovery on…
