PER CURIAM . The jury awarded $2.8 million in exemplary damages against Ledford White, but the trial court applied the exemplary-damages cap in section 41.008(b) of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code and reduced the award to $564,169.64. The court of appeals reversed and rendered judgment reinstating the jury award, holding that (1) section 41.008(b) is an affirmative defense that must be pleaded and (2) the trial court abused its discretion by allowing a trial amendment to add the...
JUSTICE LEHRMANN delivered the opinion of the Court. The principal issue in this case is whether legally sufficient evidence supports the jury's finding that the petitioner fired an employee because he filed a workers' compensation claim. The trial court rendered judgment on the verdict, and the court of appeals affirmed, holding that legally and factually sufficient evidence supported the verdict and that the jury charge was legally correct. Because the employee has presented no evidence...
JUSTICE DEVINE delivered the opinion of the Court. This original proceeding concerns whether the trial court abused its discretion by disqualifying plaintiffs' counsel because they "worked so closely" with a defendant's former finance manager. Treating the finance manager like a side-switching paralegal, the trial court applied In re American Home Products Corp., 985 S.W.2d 68 (Tex.1998) (orig.proceeding), and found plaintiffs' counsel should have screened him from participating in...
PER CURIAM Political parties may apply to the secretary of state for state funds to reimburse expenses connected with administering primary elections. See TEX. ELEC. CODE. 173.001, .081-.085. If the political party disagrees with the secretary of state's reimbursement decision, it may sue the secretary in Travis County district court. Id. 173.086(a). This appeal is from such a suit. The secretary of state declined to reimburse certain legal expenses because the political party...
PER CURIAM. In this workers' compensation case, the trial court awarded Gloria De La Cruz lifetime income benefits (LIBs) pursuant to Section 408.161 of the Texas Workers' Compensation Act (the Act). TEX. LAB. CODE 408.161. The award was based on De La Cruz's claim that an injury to her back extended to and affected both her feet at or above the ankle, causing permanent, total loss of use of them. The court of appeals affirmed. We reverse and render. De La Cruz was working as a cook for...
PER CURIAM . Residents of the City of Houston filed a referendum petition requesting the City Council to reconsider and repeal its equal rights ordinance and, if it did not repeal the ordinance, to put it to popular vote. The City Council refused, claiming the petition was invalid. Though the ordinance is steeped in controversy, the legal principles at play are relatively simple. First, "the power of ... referendum ... is the exercise by the people of a power reserved to them," and this...
PER CURIAM . The petitioners brought this equitable bill of review to set aside a no-answer default judgment. They did not receive actual service of process or timely notice of the default judgment because they failed to update their registered address with the Secretary of State's office. They contend, however, that the respondent failed to properly certify the petitioners' "last known mailing address," as our rules require for notice of a default judgment, because the respondent had actual...
PER CURIAM . This declaratory-judgment action involves a boundary dispute between the City of Ingleside and the City of Corpus Christi over the scope of an ordinance establishing the adjacent bay waters' "shoreline" as the common border. At issue is whether wharves, piers, docks, and other objects affixed to Ingleside's shore and projecting into bay waters are wholly on the land or water side of the "shoreline" boundary. Ingleside sued Corpus Christi seeking a declaration that "structures,...
PER CURIAM . Court of Criminal Appeals Miscellaneous Rule 11-003 provides that "[a] motion for stay of execution . . . must be filed ... at least seven days before the date of the scheduled execution date (exclusive of the scheduled execution date)." 1 The Court of Criminal Appeals held David Dow, an experienced post-trial capital defense attorney, in contempt for violating this rule and suspended him from practicing before it for one year, except in certain already pending cases. 2 Dow...
Justice Johnson delivered the opinion of the Court. This interlocutory appeal involves the enforceability of an arbitration provision in an attorney-client employment contract. The provision specifies that the client and firm will arbitrate disputes that arise between them, except for claims made by firm for recovery of its fees and expenses. After the underlying matter was settled, the client sued the firm. The trial court denied the firm's motion to order the dispute to arbitration. On...
Justice Johnson delivered the opinion of the Court. Deaf inmates housed in a unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) sued TDCJ's Executive Director, claiming he acted ultra vires because he violated the Texas Human Resources Code by failing to reasonably accommodate their impairment. The trial court agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered TDCJ to make certain accommodations. The court of appeals determined that the Human Resources Code was not applicable to prisons...
JUSTICE GUZMAN delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CHIEF JUSTICE HECHT , JUSTICE GREEN , JUSTICE LEHRMANN , JUSTICE DEVINE , and JUSTICE BROWN joined. The question presented here is whether a private entity operating like a chamber of commerce is a "governmental body" subject to public disclosure of its private business affairs under the Texas Public Information Act. In seeking to promote the public's legitimate interest in transparent government, the Act imposes...
Justice Johnson delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justice Green , Justice Willett , Justice Lehrmann , and Justice Devine joined. In this declaratory judgment action several individuals practicing commercial eyebrow threading and the salon owners employing them assert that, as applied to them, Texas's licensing statutes and regulations violate the Texas Constitution's due course of law provision. They claim that most of the 750 hours of training Texas requires for...
JUSTICE GUZMAN delivered the opinion of the Court. This interlocutory appeal involves a municipality's plea to the jurisdiction in a premises-liability case arising from the drowning deaths of three family members at a man-made beach. The surviving spouse and mother of the decedents alleges that the drowning deaths resulted from a peculiar risk of harm created by a confluence of artificial and natural conditions at the beach and that the municipality was grossly negligent in failing to...
The Texas Public Information Act gives the public the right to access information the government collects. TEX. GOV'T CODE 552.221. Although most of this information is available on request, the Act itself enumerates about sixty exceptions. See generally id. 552.101-.154. One of these exceptions is the focus of this appeal. The exception at issue purports to protect information "that, if released, would give advantage to a competitor or bidder." Id. 552.104. The Attorney General,...
Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Hecht , Justice Green , Justice Johnson , and Justice Boyd joined. This case arises from the State's attempt to intervene in a civil action after the trial court had already rendered final judgment. We must determine whether the court of appeals erred in holding the State lacks standing to appeal the judgment and, if not, whether the State is entitled to mandamus relief. We answer both questions in the...
Justice Green delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Hecht , Justice Willett , Justice Guzman , Justice Lehrmann , Justice Boyd , Justice Devine , and Justice Brown joined. This workers' compensation case requires us to determine whether summary judgment evidence conclusively established that an employee was acting in the course and scope of his employment when he died in an automobile accident while traveling to a job site. A contested case...
Justice Boyd delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Justice Johnson , Justice Guzman , Justice Lehrmann , and Justice Devine joined, and in which Chief Justice Hecht , Justice Green , Justice Willett , and Justice Brown joined except as to Part IV. Texas employers have a duty to exercise reasonable care to provide their employees with a safe place to work. Like all others who own or operate land, employers generally may fulfill their premises-liability...
Justice Guzman delivered the opinion of the Court. In this residential construction dispute, the paramount issue on appeal is whether the statutory cap on exemplary damages is waived if not pleaded as an affirmative defense or avoidance. See TEX. R. CIV. P. 94 (requiring pleading and proof of affirmative defenses and avoidances); see also TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE 41.008(b) (limiting exemplary damages to the greater of $200,000 or two times economic damages plus noneconomic...
Justice Guzman delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Hecht, Justice Green, Justice Willet, Justice Lehrmann, Justice Boyd, Justice Devine and Justice Brown joined. This conventional contract-interpretation dispute is set against the backdrop of a complex regulatory regime governing exploration and development of oil and gas reserves in lands under federal waters. At issue is the proper construction of a 1996 purchase and sale agreement in which Torch Energy Advisors...
