After waiting more than a decade for some guidance from the Texas Supreme Court on the meaning of "net worth" in discovery matters, we thought we were going to get just that–at least until last Friday, that is. In last Friday’s orders, the high court granted the motion to dismiss filed by the real parties in
Demonstration of Personal Knowledge in Affidavits
Beware of using "form" language in an affidavit to establish the affiant’s personal knowledge of the facts. A statement such as "I have personal knowledge of the facts in this affidavit," may not be adequate. And the danger of getting it wrong is that the affidavit is legally insufficient.
A good discussion of how far an affiant must go to establish personal knowledge is found in the Houston Fourteenth Court of Appeals‘ opinion in Valenzuela v. State & County Mutual Fire Insurance Co. The court of appeals held that a "mere recitation that the affidavit is based on personal knowledge is inadequate if the affidavit does not positively show a basis for the knowledge." "The affidavit must explain how the affiant has personal knowledge." (emphasis added).
Continue Reading Demonstration of Personal Knowledge in Affidavits
Restrictions on the Use of Special Masters
Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 171 allows a court to appoint a master in chancery "in exceptional cases, for good cause." In its In re Behringer Harvard Tic Management Services LP opinion, the Dallas Court of Appeals reminded us of what the Texas Supreme Court said about "exceptional cases" almost 20 years ago. A court’s
Final Judgments: Be Careful What You Ask For
Sometimes when a party gets a default judgment against another party, there’s a rush to make the judgment final. But as American Express Centurion Bank and American Express Bank found out in In re Daredia, you’ve got to be careful about what you ask for because there are consequences.
In the trial court, the
Appellate Procedure to Secure Finality of Appealed Order
Often trial judges sign orders that are not final either because they fail to dispose of all parties and issues before the court, or the written order fails to reflect the trial court’s intent that the order be a final, appealable judgment. That was the case in Hodo v. State, and the Amarillo Court
Are we about to get new net worth discovery rules (finally)?
A few months back, I wrote about a mandamus opinion from the Houston Fourteenth Court of Appeals, involving discovery of net worth. The majority and concurring opinions were groundbreaking in terms of their discussions.
This Spring, I wrote an article that appeared in the Appellate Advocate and discussed discovery of net worth. I noted that the Relators
Appellate Continuing Education
The Dallas Bar Association‘s Appellate Law Section is having its monthly CLE luncheon on Thursday, June 17th at Noon at the Belo Mansion. This month’s speaker is K&L Gates attorney Chris Kratovil. Chris will be speaking on "Federal Mandamus and the East Texas Venue Wars."
Remedy for Judicial Foreclosure
It’s been a couple weeks since my last post–thanks to a bunch of deadlines. Here’s a little ditty I noticed discussing judicial foreclosures, and it got me to thinking up some interesting law-school type questions about the result.
The Dallas Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment awarding judicial foreclosure in Brown v. EMC Mortgage
Disqualification of Former Appeals Court Justice and her Law Firm
The San Antonio Court of Appeals recently disqualified former court of appeals Justice Sarah Duncan and her law firm–Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP–from representing a Relator in an original proceeding pending before that court of appeals.
According to the facts in In re Brittingham, when she served on the Fourth Court
Announcing a New Arrival to the Blogging Team…
Byron Henry and I are pleased to announce that Hilaree Casada has joined the Appellate Practice Group at Cowles & Thompson. Hilaree has distinguished herself among appellate practitioners. She was recently named by D Magazine as one of the Best Women Lawyers in Dallas. She is one of nine appellate practitioners on that