Texas Case Summaries
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Texas

TexasPersonal Injury & TortReal Estate
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

Texas Cordia Construction v. Cantu — Private Government Contractor Cannot Invoke Interlocutory Appeal as “Governmental Unit”; Derivative Sovereign Immunity Fact Question Survives Plea to Jurisdiction

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The Thirteenth Court of Appeals dismissed a private contractor’s interlocutory appeal of a denied plea to the jurisdiction because a private LLC is not a “governmental unit” under § 51.014(a)(8); treating the filing as a mandamus petition, the court denied relief because the contractor’s own contract gave it sole responsibility for means and methods of construction, raising a fact question that defeats derivative sovereign immunity — a doctrine the Texas Supreme Court has not yet adopted.

TexasBreach of Contract
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Elite Concepts v. Field — “Repair” Clause in Pool Construction Contract Encompasses Cost to Complete; Contractor Who Walks Off Job Cannot Claim Attorney’s Fees as Prevailing Party

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The Fifteenth Court of Appeals held that a pool construction contract’s limitation of remedy to “repair” encompasses cost-to-complete damages as well as cost-to-repair, because construing “repair” to exclude unfinished work would render the contractor’s promise illusory; it also held that a contractor whose quantum meruit recovery is offset by the owner’s larger breach-of-contract damages award is not a “prevailing party” entitled to Chapter 38 attorney’s fees.

TexasCivil ProcedureOil & GasProbate
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Parker v. Parrack — Court Cannot Declare Rights of Non-Party in Adverse Possession Dispute Over Family Ranch; Fiduciary-Duty Deed Challenge Fails on Sufficiency Review

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The Fifteenth Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s finding that a sister did not breach her fiduciary duty in accepting a deed to mineral executive rights from her brother, but vacated the adverse-possession declaration because the company asserting ownership was never joined as a party, rendering the declaration advisory and jurisdictionally void.

TexasCivil ProcedurePersonal Injury & Tort
Texas Court of Appeals (Second District, Fort Worth)
Uncategorized

Allen v. Bell Textron — Plaintiff Who Tells Court He Has No Additional Facts and Won’t Replead Forfeits Chance to Expand Negligence Theories After Special Exceptions Sustained

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The Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed a take-nothing judgment for Bell Textron after an injured contractor’s counsel stated at a special-exceptions hearing he had no additional facts and would not replead, holding the plaintiff forfeited his opportunity to amend, the narrow jury charge was proper, and any collateral-source evidence error was harmless because the jury found no proximate cause.

TexasAppellate ProcedureCivil ProcedureOil & Gas
Texas Court of Appeals (Second District, Fort Worth)
Uncategorized

Atmos Energy v. DPC Parker Properties — Order Enforcing Rule 11 Settlement Does Not Function as a Temporary Injunction and Is Not Subject to Interlocutory Appeal

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The Fort Worth Court of Appeals dismissed Atmos Energy’s interlocutory appeal of a trial court order enforcing a Rule 11 mediated settlement in an eminent-domain dispute, holding that the order did not function as a temporary injunction because it compelled performance based on the parties’ own agreement rather than any merits determination.

TexasCivil Procedureprofessional-liability
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

Melden & Hunt v. Cantu — Citing the Certificate-of-Merit Statute and Promising a Future Affidavit Does Not Satisfy Texas’s Contemporaneous-Filing Requirement

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The Thirteenth Court of Appeals held that an original petition that cites Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 150.002(c) and promises a forthcoming certificate of merit does not substantially comply with the contemporaneous-filing requirement for professional-negligence claims against engineers, requiring reversal and remand for a determination on prejudice.

Texasanti-slappdefamationEmployment
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

Baseline Energy Services v. Martin — TCPA Requires Dismissal of Libel Claim Based on TWC Statements When Employee Presents No Evidence in Response

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The Thirteenth Court of Appeals reversed the denial of Baseline Energy’s TCPA motion to dismiss a libel claim based on statements made to the Texas Workforce Commission, holding that TWC communications implicate the right to petition and that an employee’s failure to present any evidence in response to the motion required dismissal of the libel claim.

TexasAdministrative LawConstitutionalhealthcare
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Cantu’s Pharmacy v. Texas HHSC — Medicaid Provider Has No Vested Right to Special Notice of Regulation Changes; Sovereign Immunity Bars Pre-Enforcement Suit

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The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals held that a Medicaid pharmacy has no vested right to individualized notice of Provider Manual changes, that its pre-enforcement due process and declaratory judgment claims were barred by sovereign immunity, and that dismissal with prejudice was proper after the pharmacy amended its pleadings but still failed to state a cognizable claim.

TexasAppellate ProcedureCivil ProcedureMunicipal Law
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

City of Edinburg v. Texas Cordia Construction — City Cannot Block Contractor’s Immunity Evidence by Limiting Its Jurisdictional Challenge to Pleadings

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The Thirteenth Court of Appeals held that a city cannot bar a contractor from presenting jurisdictional evidence by framing its plea to the jurisdiction as a pleadings-only challenge, and that amounts owed under a termination-for-convenience clause are “due and owed” within the Texas Local Government Code’s immunity waiver.

TexasConstitutionalCriminal
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

Magnuson v. State — Trial Court Violated Defendant’s Faretta Right to Self-Representation at Deferred Adjudication Hearing

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The Texas Thirteenth Court of Appeals reversed a ten-year deferred-adjudication conviction, holding the trial court violated Magnuson’s Faretta right to self-representation at the adjudication hearing when it denied his unequivocal request to proceed pro se—over the State’s delay-tactic objection—without making the required findings that the request was knowing, voluntary, and timely.

TexasConstitutionalCriminal
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners v. Youniacutt — Automatic License Bar for Violent Felony Convictions Survives Constitutional Challenge

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The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and dismissed challenges to Texas Occupations Code § 108.052(2)’s automatic denial of social worker licenses to applicants with prior violent felony convictions, holding that the categorical disqualification survives rational-basis review under Patel because protecting vulnerable patients is a legitimate government interest and the bar is not oppressively burdensome.

TexasInsurance Coverage
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Public Utility Commission v. City of Denton — Court Affirms Rate Decision Reversing Commission’s Mid-Proceeding RFP Change for Municipal Transmission Utility

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The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals affirmed a district court ruling that the PUC’s mid-proceeding modification of its rate filing package without Texas Register publication was arbitrary and capricious, requiring application of the pre-amendment 0.25x debt service coverage adder presumption, while upholding the Commission’s exclusion of a municipal utility’s general fund transfer return-on-investment component as insufficiently substantiated.

TexasAppellate ProcedureCivil ProcedureEmployment
Texas Court of Appeals, Seventh District (Amarillo)
Uncategorized

Petrini v. Simon Group Consulting — Domesticating a California Judgment in Texas Does Not Give Texas Courts Jurisdiction Over Counterclaims Arising from Pre-Domestication California Conduct

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The Seventh Court of Appeals held that a California company’s domestication of a default judgment in Texas does not confer specific personal jurisdiction for counterclaims arising from pre-domestication California conduct, and that remote employment of a Texas resident does not establish general jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant.

TexasBreach of ContractConstruction LawContract Interpretation
Uncategorized

Blackmon Mooring v. St. Edward’s University — Third Court Reverses Summary Judgment, Holds Parol Evidence Cannot Transform Cost Estimate into Price Cap

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The Third Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for St. Edward’s University, holding that the parol evidence rule prohibited using pre-contract negotiations to transform a cost-plus contract’s ‘estimated budgetary price’ into a guaranteed maximum price.

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