Category: Case Notes

Mar 26, 2019

Hicks Thomas Team Defeats Anti-SLAPP Dismissal Motion at Trial and Appellate Level

Hicks Thomas lawyers defeated a motion to dismiss their client’s claims of trade secret theft, winning in both the trial court and appeals court and ensuring the lawsuit will move forward. In prevailing, Hicks Thomas partner Robin Harrison and associate Joshua Bauer beat back an effort by the defendants to get the lawsuit dismissed under…

Feb 20, 2019

Hicks Thomas Scores Another Big Win in Front of Texas Supreme Court

AUSTIN, Texas – Lawyers with Hicks Thomas secured another significant decision from the Supreme Court of Texas, this time for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) in a ruling that reaffirms the importance of attorney-client privilege. The high court ruled Feb. 15 that lawyer-client confidentiality applied to communications between an…

Jan 29, 2019

Hicks Thomas Scores Big Medical Malpractice Win in Texas Supreme Court

AUSTIN, Texas – Lawyers with Hicks Thomas LLP secured a Texas Supreme Court decision in favor of a woman whose husband died as a result of a doctor’s misdiagnosis, with the high court concluding that a jury had ample evidence to support its multimillion-dollar verdict. A Harris County jury had…

Jun 26, 2018

Hicks Thomas Wins Appeal in East Texas Mineral Rights Dispute

TEXARKANA, Texas – Hicks Thomas lawyers won a Texas appeals court ruling for MJR Oil & Gas 2001 LLC involving a dispute over dozens of East Texas leases. What are Mineral Rights in Texas? In the state of Texas, mineral rights are regarded as the rights to mineral deposits that…

Dec 19, 2017

Hicks Thomas Lawyers Win Take-Nothing Jury Verdict for Houston Manufacturer

Worker had sued for up to $1 million, but Facebook photos undercut his story HOUSTON – A judge has confirmed a jury’s take-nothing verdict in favor of a Houston-based manufacturer that was sued for damages of up to $1 million by a worker who was injured when he improperly tried…

Jul 20, 2017

Texas Supreme Court Clarifies that the Texas Railroad Commission Does Not Have Exclusive or Primary Jurisdiction Over Environmental Claims

The Texas Railroad Commission extensively regulates oil and gas operations in Texas. In addition to regulating normal oilfield operations, the Commission’s broad authority includes the regulation of waste disposal, investigation of possible soil and groundwater contamination, ordering and overseeing the clean-up of contamination, and verifying that the cleanup is complete….

Apr 5, 2017

Recent Ninth Circuit Cases of Interest – Limited Federal Jurisdiction

Herklotz v. Parkinson began in 2000 (yes, 2000) in federal district court in Pennsylvania. In the mid-1990s, John Herklotz had negotiated an agreement with Eric Parkinson to distribute a family film called “The Giant of Thunder Mountain.” (You didn’t see that classic Cloris Leachman work?) Their collaboration eventually involved a Pennsylvania…

Feb 17, 2017

Recent Ninth Circuit Cases of Interest – Surreptitious Recording

With an office in California, Hicks Thomas LLP monitors decisions issued by the California appellate courts and by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A recent decision by the latter caught our attention. Safari Club International v. Rudolph involved a bitter dispute between SCI and its former president,…

Dec 6, 2016

US Supreme Court Civil Cases of Interest-October Term 2016

So far this October Term 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued two decisions in civil cases, both on December 6. First, in State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. United States ex rel. Rigsby, the Court considered “the proper remedy when there is a violation of the False Claims Act…

Dec 1, 2016

Amendments to the Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure and to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure-What’s of Interest to Civil Litigators

On December 1, amendments to the various sets of federal procedural rules took effect. The top of the federal judiciary’s “Current Rules of Practice and Procedure” webpage has a useful list of these amendments, including links to full-text and redlined versions of the amended rules and to various explanatory materials….

Sep 13, 2016

Hicks Thomas LLP Gets $50 Million Bench Trial Reversal in Hospital Land Dispute

A Houston court decided to reverse the decision of a lower court, effectively reversing a land dispute judgment worth $50 million regarding Katy Pin Oak Hospital in Katy, Texas. The reversal followed a ruling by the 14th Court of Appeals that determined unsubstantiated liability theories might have been responsible for the original, $50…

Sep 12, 2016

Attorneys’ Fees May Not Be Recoverable in Breach of Contract Actions

Until 2015, most Texas attorneys were secure in their understanding that in breach of contract actions, a successful plaintiff could recover its “reasonable and necessary” attorneys’ fees under the authority of Chapter 38 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. For decades, Texas trial courts had awarded, and appellate courts…

Jul 1, 2016

Mom said hard work will get you recognized…

Mom shared her wisdom freely, and often: Hard work will get you recognized. We have definitely been working hard in 2016, and just like mom said, we’ve been recognized, too. In a recent stretch, we tried a personal injury case to verdict in state court in Beaumont, Texas, followed by…