Justice MEDINA delivered the opinion of the Court in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON, Justice HECHT, Justice WAINWRIGHT, Justice GREEN, Justice WILLETT, Justice GUZMAN, and Justice LEHRMANN joined. Under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a secured creditor may repossess collateral after a default, dispose of it, and then sue for any deficiency that remains after the proceeds from the collateral are applied to the debt. A secured creditor that seeks to recover a deficiency, however,...
Justice GUZMAN delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justice HECHT, Justice WAINWRIGHT, Justice MEDINA, Justice JOHNSON, Justice WILLETT, and Justice LEHRMANN joined, and in which Chief Justice JEFFERSON joined as to Parts I and II. This appeal arises from a jury's verdict in a suit brought against the manufacturer, importer, and distributor of a motorcoach. In 1995, when the motorcoach at issue here was manufactured, federal safety regulations governing the performance of these...
Justice WAINWRIGHT delivered the opinion of the Court. Olshan Foundation Repair Company filed these petitions for writs of mandamus in four different cases in which three separate trial courts denied Olshan's pleas in abatement, refusing to compel arbitration of consumer claims against it. Three different courts of appeals also declined to order the disputes to arbitration. We consolidated these cases for argument and now issue a consolidated opinion. Because the Texas General Arbitration Act (...
PER CURIAM. In this premises-liability suit, the plaintiff claims that a metal chain blocking a driveway at the University of Texas at Austin (the University) caused him to have a bicycle accident and constituted a premises defect for which the Texas Tort Claims Act waives sovereign immunity. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE 101.022(a), (b). Because we conclude that the condition of the location was not a special defect as a matter of law and that the plaintiff failed to establish a premises-...
Justice WAINWRIGHT delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, a general contractor and an owner dispute performance and final payment under a construction contract. 1 Solar Applications Engineering, Inc. d/b/a Wade Construction (Solar), the general contractor, and T.A. Operating Corporation d/b/a TravelCenters of America (TA), the owner, entered a contract to build a truck stop in San Antonio, Texas. After Solar substantially completed the project, disputes arose regarding the...
PER CURIAM. In this employment discrimination case, we must decide whether the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to compel arbitration pursuant to a written arbitration agreement signed by the employer and an at-will employee. Because the arbitration agreement is not illusory, we hold that the trial court erred by refusing to compel arbitration. For the reasons expressed below, we conditionally grant mandamus relief and direct the trial court to vacate its order denying the motion...
PER CURIAM. Five and a half months after the trial court dismissed his case, James Lee Sweed filed a notice of appeal that did not contain all the information required for a notice of restricted appeal. A month later he amended the notice to include the missing information. The court of appeals dismissed the appeal, holding that Sweed's original, incomplete notice of restricted appeal was insufficient to invoke its jurisdiction, and the amended notice was not timely filed. We conclude that...
Chief Justice JEFFERSON delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Justice HECHT, Justice MEDINA, Justice GREEN, Justice WILLETT, Justice GUZMAN, and Justice LEHRMANN. This appeal turns not on the merits of the underlying claim but on whether prerequisites to suit have been satisfied, and if not, whether an interlocutory appeal is available. Because the relevant requirements were met here, and because interlocutory appeal was appropriate, we affirm the court of appeals' judgment. I....
PER CURIAM. In this mandamus proceeding, we consider whether the juvenile court abused its discretion when it did not obtain a complete diagnostic evaluation of a juvenile prior to a hearing to transfer the juvenile to adult criminal court. The Family Code mandates a "complete diagnostic study," and the psychologist who performed this report emphasized it was incomplete. We hold the trial court abused its discretion, a determination the State does not dispute, and we conditionally grant the...
PER CURIAM. The Texas Tort Claims Act requires that a governmental unit obtain notice of a claim against it within six months of the incident giving rise to the claim. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE 101.101. We have construed this provision as entitling a governmental unit to formal, written notice of a claim within six months of the incident unless it has actual notice. Tex. Dep't of Criminal Justice v. Simons, 140 S.W.3d 338 , 339 (Tex.2004) (citing Cathey v. Booth, 900 S.W.2d 339 , 341 (...
Justice JOHNSON delivered the opinion of the Court. This case arises because provisions of the Texas Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Texas Lottery Act conflict as to whether installment payments of a lottery prize are assignable. The primary issues are whether the Commission has sovereign immunity from suit and whether the Lottery Act's prohibition against transferring the last two installments of a prize are negated by the UCC. Cletius Irvan, a Texas Lottery prizewinner, assigned his...
Justice JOHNSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The State obtained an easement to construct a mitigation pond on Charles and Marlene Brownlow's property to collect water that would result from a highway expansion project. The State built the pond and used most of the excavated dirt for highway construction purposes in another location. The Brownlows sued the State for inverse condemnation as to the dirt it removed. The State asserted sovereign immunity from suit in a plea to the...
Justice WILLETT delivered the opinion of the Court. This indemnity case concerns products-liability litigation in the residential construction industry. Specifically, we examine a synthetic stucco manufacturer's duty to indemnify a contractor under Chapter 82 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Two threshold questions are paramount: (1) Is synthetic stucco a "product" and (2) Is the contractor that installs it on a house a "seller" We answer yes to both, meaning Chapter 82 applies....
PER CURIAM. In this case, Sondra Grohman sued her ex-husband, Clarence Kahlig II, for various torts and breach of a Security Agreement (Agreement) entered pursuant to their divorce settlement when he changed the security, stock in his two corporations, into limited partnership units. Kahlig filed a counterclaim seeking a declaration that changing the form of the business entities did not constitute an event of default under the Agreement. At trial, the court submitted the breach of contract...
PER CURIAM. Arthur Powell sued the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (the Department) and one of its officers, complaining that they deprived him of certain constitutional rights. The trial court dismissed Powell's claims, and a divided court of appeals reversed. 251 S.W.3d 783 , 792. Because Powell has failed to state a claim, we reverse the court of appeals' judgment and render judgment dismissing the case. This case arises out of a disciplinary...
PER CURIAM. In this workers' compensation case, the court of appeals concluded that the carrier waived its right to dispute the extent of the claimant's compensable injury by failing to adhere to Texas Labor Code section 409.021(c)'s sixty-day deadline. 325 S.W.3d 209 . We recently held that the sixty-day period for challenging compensability does not apply to a dispute over extent of injury. State Office of Risk Mgmt. v. Lawton, 295 S.W.3d 646 , 649-50 (Tex.2009). In light of Lawton,...
Justice GREEN delivered the opinion of the Court. The principal question in this case is whether consideration received for the sale of a business interest is subject to equitable forfeiture as a remedy for breach of fiduciary duty. We hold that when a partner in a business breached his fiduciary duty by fraudulently inducing another partner to buy out his interest, the consideration received by the breaching party for his interest in the business is subject to forfeiture as a remedy for the...
