Insight & Commentary on Texas Appellate Law
The Texas Supreme Court has revisited statutory standard for determining when a parent is unemployed or underemployed for purposes of determining child support obligations.
Section 154.066 of the Texas Family Code provides that "[i]f the actual income of the obligor is significantly less than what the obligor could earn because of intentional unemployment or underemployment…
There’s been a spate of recent opinions involving enforcements of settlement agreements. Byron reported on a couple of opinions earlier this week. Today I report on Green v. Midland Mortgage Co. decided by the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. There are four points in this opinion worthy of note:
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The San Antonio Court of Appeals recently decided two cases dealing with recovery of attorney’s fees for breach of contract. The court first held that a party who brings an action to enforce a Mediated Settlement Agreement (MSA) is not entitled to attorney’s fees under Chapter 38 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code…
The Fourteenth District Court of Appeals in Houston has held that a corporation’s jurisdictional contacts could not be imputed to a nonresident that succeeded to the corporation’s contract rights.
Under the core facts in Motor Components LLC v. Devon Energy Corp., Pennzoil Company, a Delaware corporation located in Texas, contracted with its subsidiary, Purolator Products Company, a Delaware corporation located in Oklahoma. Under the contract, Pennzoil agreed to indemnify Purolator for certain remediation costs of Purolator’s real property located in New York and Michigan. Motor Components, which is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in New York, succeeded to Purolator’s rights under the contract by transactions not described in the appellate record. Motor Components subsequently invoked certain provisions of the contract and called upon Pennzoil’s successor-in-interest, Devon Energy Corporation, to respond. Devon is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Oklahoma. Devon then filed a declaratory judgment action in Texas and sought personal jurisdiction over Motor Components.Continue Reading Personal Jurisdiction in Contract Case with Successor in Interest
The El Paso Court of Appeals issued an opinion this week that addresses, in part, application of Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 41.0105. There are two takeaways from the Section 41.0105 discussion.
First, the El Paso court joins the majority of intermediate appellate courts in Texas holding that 41.0105 should be handled post-verdict. Frontera Sanitation, LLC …
Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. The Dallas Court of Appeals recently held that an appellee is entitled to voluntary remittitur on rehearing. In this case, the court of appeals originally issued an opinion in which it found the evidence insufficient to support the amount of damages. Because liability was contested, the court reversed the judgment…
The difference between defects in the form of an affidavit versus defects in substance is not always clear and the appellate courts have not always agreed on what is substantive and what is not. But the difference can be important. As the Dallas Court of Appeals points out in Stone v. Midland Multifamily Equity Reit…
Once again, a court of appeals has weighed in on the question of calculating net worth for purposes of supersedeas. The Dallas Court of Appeals recently held that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to include the judgment as a liability in calculating the judgment debtor’s net worth. The court relied on the…
We have a pair of starkly conflicting opinions recently issued by the Dallas Court of Appeals in the arena of Health Care Liability claims to report. In one, the court applies the well-settled principle that a plaintiff’s pleadings do not determine whether a claim is a health care liability claim and the court applies the Texas Supreme Court’s analysis in Marks v. St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital to the legal determination of whether the claim is a health care liability claim. In the second case, the court does not mention the Marks test, and holds that the plaintiff’s pleadings do determine whether a claim is a health care liability claim.
Parties seeking to appeal from an adverse judgment should be wary of requesting or otherwise approving the very judgment they intend to appeal. In Sincerely Yours LP v. NCI Building Systems LP, Sincerely Yours obtained a favorable verdict on liability but wanted to appeal the exclusion of certain testimony relating to the extent of its…
