MEMORANDUM AND OPINION LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge. This is a personal injury suit brought by parents individually and on behalf of their minor daughter. The child was injured in June 2008 while attending a summer day camp at a fitness center in Sugarland, Texas. The defendants have moved for summary judgment on the basis of their affirmative defense of release. (Docket Entry No. 22). The defense is based on a "participation agreement" the mother signed when she enrolled the child in the...
OPINION AND ORDER MELINDA HARMON, District Judge. Pending before the Court in the above referenced cause, grounded in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. 1415(i)(2)(A), 1 appealing Texas Education Agency ("TEA") Special Education Hearing Officer Tomas Ramirez, III's decision 2 that Klein Independent School District ("KISD") failed to provide student Per Hovem with a free appropriate public education 3 and ordering Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant KISD to...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL AND MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND THE JUDGMENT ANDREW S. HANEN, District Judge. Pending before the Court is the Defendant Puget Plastics Corporation ("Puget") and Intervenor Microtherm's Motion for a New Trial or to Alter or Amend the Judgment (Docket No. 339). 1 For the reasons set forth below, that motion will be denied. I. BACKGROUND This Court has previously outlined the facts of this case in great detail. See Nat'l Union Fire Ins....
OPINION AND ORDER MELINDA HARMON, District Judge. Pending before the Court are Defendant Rowan Companies, Inc.'s ("Rowan") Motions for Summary Judgment (Docs. 48, 67), as well as Plaintiff State of Louisiana's ("Louisiana") responses (Docs. 55, 73), Rowan's replies (Docs. 60, 74), and Louisiana's surreply (Doc. 77). Upon review and consideration of these motions, the responses, replies, and surreply thereto, the relevant legal authority, and for the reasons explained below, the Court finds...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge. This case arises out of disputes between Robert Alpert and Mark Riley that have played out for more than a decade in IRS offices, Texas state courts, and this court. Among other disagreements, Alpert contests Riley's authority to act as trustee for four trusts established by Alpert for his sons, Roman Merker and Daniel James Alpert. Two of those trusts—the Roman Merker Alpert Trust ("RAT") and the Daniel James Alpert Trust ("DAT")—are...
MEMORANDUM OPINION NANCY K. JOHNSON, United States Magistrate Judge. Pending before the court 1 are Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 13) and Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 15). The court has considered the motions, all relevant filings, and the applicable law. For the reasons set forth below, the court GRANTS Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry No. 13) and DENIES Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket Entry...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER KEITH P. ELLISON, District Judge. Pending before the Court are Defendant's First Amended Motion to Vacate Arbitration Award (Doc. No. 9) and Plaintiffs Amended Motion to Strike Affidavit of Mark Counts (Doc. No. 11). After considering the parties' filings and the applicable law, the Court finds that the Motion to Vacate should be granted and that the Motion to Strike should be denied. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiff Dealer Computer Services, Inc. ("DCS") is a corporation that...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER KEITH P. ELLISON, District Judge. Pending before the Court are the following motions: — Motion to Consolidate Cases and for Appointment as Lead Plaintiff and Approval of Choice of Lead Counsel (Doc. No. 23) filed by New York and Ohio retirement funds 1 (collectively, "New York & Ohio"). — Motion for Appointment as Lead Plaintiffs and Approval of Choice of Lead Counsel (Doc. No. 22) filed by Robert Ludlow, Peter D. Lichtman, Leslie J. Nakagiri, and Paul Huyck (...
MEMORANDUM AND OPINION LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge. I. Background This is a declaratory judgment action to resolve an insurance-coverage dispute. The declaratory judgment plaintiff, Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation, issued a commercial general liability to the one of the defendants, Associated Marine & Industrial Staffing, Inc. (AMI). AMI is in the business of providing temporary workers to clients. The coverage dispute arises from an accident involving an AMI employee who was...
OPINION AND ORDER OF PARTIAL DISMISSAL MELINDA HARMON, District Judge. Pending before the Court in G-03-0967, alleging a giant Ponzi scheme involving inter alia all Defendants sued here, 1 in violation of (1) the Texas Securities Act ("TSA"), Tex.Rev.Civ. Stat. art. 581-33, et seq., (2) the Texas Fraud in Real Estate And Stock Transactions statute, Texas Business & Commerce Code 27.01 et seq., and (3) Texas common law (fraud, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, and negligence and...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER SIM LAKE, District Judge. Plaintiff, Jeremy Joseph Durrenberger, brings this action against defendant, Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12181, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973(RA), 29 U.S.C. 794, for damages, declaratory and injunctive relief, attorney's fees, and costs of suit. 1 Pending before the court are Defendant, The Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Motion...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER NANCY F. ATLAS, District Judge. Adonius Collier was murdered in 1992. A surviving victim led the police to suspect Nanon McKewn Williams' involvement in the crime. While Williams fled to California, his co-participant in the shootings, Vaal Guevara, turned himself into the police. Guevara's self-serving confession became the backbone of a flawed prosecution that led to Williams' capital-murder conviction three years later. The issue now before the Court is whether trial...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge. This is a suit under Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"), 29 U.S.C. 201, et seq. The plaintiffs are former servers and bartenders at two adult entertainment clubs in Houston. The defendants are the corporations that operate these two clubs, four corporations that operated four other clubs, and two individuals who own the holding company that is the common owner of the six corporate defendants. The plaintiffs allege that these defendants...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER OF REMAND SIM LAKE, District Judge. On August 6, 2010, Third-Party Defendant, LNM Marketing FZE removed this action from the 11th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas, where it was pending under No. 2009-54103. Pending before the court are Welspun's Motion to Remand (Docket Entry No. 19), and Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC's Motion to Remand and Alternatively Motion to Sever and Remand (Docket Entry No. 20). For the reasons explained below, the...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER KEITH P. ELLISON, District Judge. Pending before the Court is the motion for summary judgment of Defendant Thinkware, Inc. (Doc. No. 17). For the following reasons, Defendant's Motion must be granted in part and denied in part. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND Plaintiff Fagan Holdings, Inc.'s ("Fagan") purchase of a license to use Defendant Thinkware Inc.'s software and its subsequent software implementation are the basis for this suit for breach of contract, fraudulent...
OPINION STEPHEN WM. SMITH, United States Magistrate Judge. In three separate criminal investigations earlier this month, this court denied the Government's request under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) to compel cell phone service providers to produce cell site information for target cell phones. Among other things, each application sought "records or other information pertaining to subscriber(s) or customer(s), including historical cell site information and call detail records (...
ORDER JANIS GRAHAM JACK, District Judge. On this day came on to be considered Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs Cesar Flores and Alvin E. King's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the issue of whether their debt has been "paid in full" (D.E. 125); and Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant Vanderbilt Finance and Mortgage Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment as to Flores and King's Counterclaims (D.E. 143). For the reasons stated herein, Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs' Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (...
ORDER JANIS GRAHAM JACK, District Judge. On this day came to be considered (1) Intervenors Maria and Arturo Trevino's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (D.E. 124); (2) Intervention-Defendants Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Inc. and CMH Homes' Motion for Summary Judgment (D.E. 145); (3) Intervention-Defendant Kevin Clayton's Motion for Summary Judgment (D.E. 146); and (4) Intervention-Defendant Clayton Homes, Inc.'s Motion for Summary Judgment (D.E. 147). For the reasons explained below,...
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER LEE H. ROSENTHAL, District Judge. I. Background This case arises from the tragic death of a young man in a swimming pool at his Houston Independent School District high school. C.A. was a senior at Westside High School. His physics class included a project to build boats out of cardboard and duct tape and test them in the school's swimming pool. C.A. did not know how to swim. He drowned during the class. C.A.'s parents sued in their individual capacities and on behalf of...
OPINION NANCY F. ATLAS, District Judge. The Court held a preliminary injunction hearing in this insurance coverage case from August 24 through August 27, 2010, to address issues raised by the Motion to Vacate Preliminary Injunction [Doc. # 260] filed by Defendants Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London and Arch Specialty Insurance Co. (collectively, "Underwriters"). Plaintiffs Mark Kuhrt, Gilbert Lopez, and R. Allen Stanford 1 seek coverage under Directors and Officers insurance policies...
