Once upon a time a trial court’s decision on a question of dominant jurisdiction was not subject to mandamus relief unless one court was actively interfering with another court’s exercise of jurisdiction. The Texas Supreme Court has abrogated that standard in favor of the more flexible standard the court adopted in In re Prudential Insurance
Opinions & Judgments
Court clerks have a duty to file tendered documents
“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.
Context Matters: personal e-mail addresses of government officials are not protected from disclosure requirements
The Texas Public Information Act is intended to provide the public with a window into the business of government and the official acts of public officials. There are some limited restrictions on the information that may be obtained by a person requesting information. The Austin Court of Appeals’ opinion in The Austin Bulldog vs. Leffingwell…
Injunction Law: Back to the Basics
Temporary restraining orders and temporary injunctions are governed by some fairly specific requirements. Failure to follow those black-and-white requirements can result in the court’s order being declared void. That’s what happened in Medi-Lynx Monitoring, Inc. v. AMI Monitoring, Inc. Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 683 requires that an order granting a temporary injunction set the…
Plaintiffs avoid getting (anti) SLAPPed
Appellate courts in Texas have seen an influx of defamation, business disparagement, and other similar actions since 2011 when the Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”), Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 27.001-27.011 (2015), was signed into law. The TCPA is an anti-SLAPP statute; SLAPP is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, which…
No contempt for contractual support
The Dallas Court of Appeals recently held that contempt is not available to enforce contractual spousal support absent decretal language in the divorce decree along with a reference to Chapter 8 of the Texas Family Code and its requirements. Here, the parties entered into an agreement for spousal maintenance. The final divorce decree, however, simply…
Dallas Court of Appeals reinstates $7.25 million verdict on quantum meruit claim
I generally think of quantum meruit claims as merely disposable, add-on claims used in a belt-and-suspenders approach to a contract action. But after reading the opinion in Shamoun & Norman, LLC v. Albert G. Hill, Jr., I am not going to underestimate the power of a quantum meruit claim. A $7.25 million bonus for…
First Amendment Speech vs. State Regulation of Health and Safety
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion addressing First Amendment protections over political speech and First Amendment challenges to the state regulation of psychological services.
In Serafine vs. Branaman, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists ordered Mary Serafine to stop using the title of “psychologist” on her campaign website…
When is Mandamus Relief Available for Conflicting Trial Settings?
The Texas Supreme Court’s holding in In re Prudential Insurance Co. of America, 148 S.W.3d 124, 135-36 (Tex. 2004) (orig. proceeding)—that determining whether an appellate remedy is “adequate” requires a balancing of the benefits and detriments of mandamus review and is not an abstract or formulaic determination—seems to have caused a split among the…
Trial court’s reach exceeds its grasp
The Dallas Court of Appeals recently held that a trial court lacks jurisdiction to issue a show-cause order for a non-party to appear if the party is outside the subpoena power of the court. Here, after one unsuccessful mediation, the parties attempted another mediation during trial with the trial court’s blessing. The trial court determined…