Insight & Commentary on Texas Appellate Law
For pending and unreported cases, the 20th Edition of The Bluebook calls for citation to the LEXIS or Westlaw electronic report of the case when one is available. But if you are in the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, you would be wise to use the citation to Westlaw if it is available.
The Fort…
I had the privilege and pleasure of speaking to the Dallas Bar Association Appellate Law Section on the subject of superseding judgments in Texas state courts. In connection with that continuing legal education presentation, I prepared a written paper and a powerpoint presentation. I am making those resources publicly available here:
The Supreme Court of Texas handed down an opinion in Regent Care of San Antonio, L.P. v. Detrick in early May. The main holding in the case addresses the application of a settlement credit. But one short paragraph at the end of the opinion has appellate practitioners talking.
The paragraph in question states:
“Regent Care
…
Freedom of speech and thought lie at the core of liberty. Though many philosophers, statesmen, and legal practitioners have opined on the value of free speech and thought, Justice Louis Brandies best captured the value of free speech and thought in our constitutional scheme:
Those who won our independence believed that the final end of…
Did the Texas Supreme Court substitute fair notice pleading for well-pleaded complaints? Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 91a was adopted in 2013, and provides a “no reasonable person could believe” standard. Until recently, whether “no reasonable person could believe” meant “plausibility” remained an unanswered question. In City of Dallas v. Sanchez, No. 15-0094 (July 1,…
“A clerk has a ‘mandatory, ministerial duty’ to file all documents submitted for filing,” according to a recent opinion issued by the Dallas Court of Appeals. The court further held that the court, not the clerk, then has the power to decide the propriety of the filing.
When I don’t want oral argument or don’t think it is necessary, my standard operating procedure has been to (1) put nothing regarding oral argument on the front cover of my brief, and (2) include a Statement Regarding Oral Argument in the brief explaining why it has not been requested but adding a statement that, if the Court…
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…
The Houston Fourteenth District Court of Appeals has held that a Relator must challenge all possible grounds supporting a trial court’s ruling by its Petition for Writ of Mandamus or the Relator waives its complaint. In In re TCW Global Project Fund II, Ltd., No. 14-08-00116-CV (Sept. 24, 2008), the Relator filed a Petition…
