Texas Supreme Court

The Texas Supreme Court, per curiam, held that due process and due course of law entitle a parent to appellate review of Family Code section 161.001(b)(1)(D) and (E) findings whenever the parent presents the issue on appeal, even if another ground alone would sustain termination, because unreviewed D/E findings become…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a commercial tenant may terminate a commercial lease based on the landlord's prior material breach, concluding that Davidow's implied warranty of suitability does not forbid termination on that ground, and that Rohrmoos preserved that issue even though it failed to preserve any…

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed a termination decree supported by a mother's stipulations in a mediated settlement agreement (MSA), holding that her voluntary, unrecanted, and uncontroverted admission that termination was in her children's best interests—together with stipulations to statutory grounds and agreed…

The Texas Supreme Court held that Alamo Heights Independent School District's governmental immunity from suit was not waived under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act because coach Catherine Clark produced no evidence that the same-sex harassment she alleged was committed because of her gender, and no evidence of…

The Texas Supreme Court, per curiam, held that an indigent parent's statutory right to appointed counsel in a governmental termination suit—running through exhaustion of all appeals under Family Code Sections 107.013 and 107.016—extends to proceedings in the Supreme Court itself, including the filing of a petition for…

The Texas Supreme Court held that the Texas Citizens Participation Act applies to private communications so long as the subject matter is of public concern, and found that the emails at issue concerned a matter of public concern.

The Texas Supreme Court held that the 'clear and specific evidence' a plaintiff must produce under Texas Citizens Participation Act section 27.005(c) to survive a motion to dismiss includes relevant circumstantial evidence and the rational inferences it supports, and that the Act imposes no elevated evidentiary…

The Texas Supreme Court held that an intellectually disabled mother's affidavit of voluntary relinquishment was admissible—both because it satisfied Family Code § 161.103(a)(3)'s verification requirement and because the later guardianship adjudication had no retroactive effect—but that legally insufficient evidence…

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the en banc court of appeals' termination of Father's parental rights, holding that courts of appeals performing factual sufficiency reviews in termination cases must consider the entire record but are not required to detail the relevant evidence in their opinions when they affirm the…

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for mineral lessee XTO Energy against surface owner Homer Merriman, who sought a permanent injunction requiring removal of a gas well he claimed precluded his annual cattle roundup, sorting, and working operations.

Holding that Family Code § 161.001(1)(O)'s requirement that a child be removed under Chapter 262 'for the abuse or neglect of the child' reaches removals based on the risk of abuse or neglect—not merely actual abuse or neglect of the removed child—the Texas Supreme Court concluded that the harm suffered or danger…

The Texas Supreme Court held that the evidence was legally insufficient to support termination of a deported immigrant father's parental rights under both the endangerment subsection of Family Code § 161.001(1)(E) and the best-interest prong of § 161.001(2).

The Texas Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals' dismissal for want of subject-matter jurisdiction of a section 1983 class action in which indigent misdemeanor defendants challenged Williamson County's practices on court-appointed counsel, self-representation, and open-court proceedings.

The Texas Supreme Court reversed a court of appeals judgment upholding the Comptroller's additional franchise tax assessment against TGS-NOPEC for receipts from licensing its proprietary seismic data library to Texas customers. Construing Tex.

The Texas Supreme Court held that Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 51.016, which borrows federal appealability standards, does not permit interlocutory appeal of a trial court's order appointing an arbitrator under section 5 of the Federal Arbitration Act, because such orders appear in neither the appealable 9…

The Texas Supreme Court held that Family Code section 154.066 does not require proof that an obligor's intentional unemployment or underemployment is for the purpose of avoiding child support before a trial court may base support on earning potential; the statute demands only a conscious choice to remain unemployed or…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a commercial lease's acknowledgment that no representations had been made outside the lease, together with an integration clause, constituted only a standard merger clause that did not disclaim reliance and therefore did not bar the tenant's fraudulent-inducement claim.

The Texas Supreme Court held that the royalty owners' statutory and common-law waste claims and Emerald's negligent-misrepresentation and tortious-interference claims were barred by the two-year statute of limitations because both parties had actual knowledge of Exxon's injury-causing conduct—evidenced by the…

The Supreme Court of Texas held that the Railroad Commission's construction of 'public interest' in Water Code section 27.051(b)(1)—excluding traffic-safety considerations from its injection-well permitting analysis—is reasonable and consistent with the statute's plain language and scheme, and therefore entitled to…

The Court held that the two-year limitations period for health care liability claims controls over the sixty-day joinder provision for designated responsible third parties, so Molinet's claims against the doctors were time-barred.

The Texas Supreme Court, Justice Johnson writing, denied Gilbert's motion for rehearing, withdrew its June 4, 2010 opinion, and substituted this opinion affirming the court of appeals' judgment that Underwriters at Lloyd's owed no indemnity for Gilbert's $6.175 million settlement of the sole surviving…

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals' judgment that UCC sections 9.406 and 9.102 render Lottery Act sections 466.406 and 466.410 ineffective to the extent they prohibit or restrict a prizewinner's assignment of the final two installment payments of a lottery prize.

The Texas Supreme Court held, on an issue of first impression, that where the gravamen of an employee's case is sexual harassment covered by the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (TCHRA), the Act's tailored remedial scheme is exclusive and preempts a common-law negligent supervision and retention claim predicated…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a trial court's erroneous dismissal of a suit with prejudice entered after the plaintiff's nonsuit is voidable, not void, because a nonsuit renders the merits moot without stripping the court of its jurisdiction to dispose of the case.

The Court held that a fiduciary who fraudulently induces a partner to enter a buyout agreement may be required to forfeit contractual consideration, even without proof of actual damages, subject to equitable factors that ensure the remedy fits the circumstances.

The Texas Supreme Court held that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction to render summary judgment on Fernandez's bill of review attacking the 1949 Humble Oil will-construction judgment: her good-faith pleadings conferred standing, and because a bill of review is a direct attack, only the court that…

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed a roughly $1.48 million premises-liability award to Bradley Smith, who suffered a skull fracture and brain damage in a closing-time brawl at the Del Lago resort bar, holding that Del Lago owed him a duty of protection because it had actual and direct knowledge that a violent brawl was…

The Texas Supreme Court conditionally granted USAA mandamus relief, directing the trial court to grant summary judgment for USAA on James Steven Brite's refiled age-discrimination claim under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act.

The Texas Supreme Court held that a plaintiff invoking specific jurisdiction over nonresident defendants must plead a connection between the defendants' alleged wrongdoing and Texas, and that where the pleadings allege no jurisdictional acts in the forum, the defendants negate all bases of jurisdiction simply by…

The Texas Supreme Court reversed a judgment awarding The Woodlands Operating Company $1,000 in damages and $145,091.59 in attorney’s fees against MBM Financial Corporation in a dispute over terminated copier leases.

The Court held that Lueck’s pleadings affirmatively negated subject-matter jurisdiction because his email reported anticipated regulatory noncompliance rather than a violation of law and was sent to a supervisor who was not an appropriate law-enforcement authority.

The Texas Supreme Court held that court orders directing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to withdraw funds from an inmate trust account under Government Code section 501.014(e) to pay court fees and costs are civil, not criminal, matters, placing them within the Supreme Court's jurisdiction and reversing the…

The Texas Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and rendered judgment reinstating a no-evidence summary judgment for trailer manufacturer Timpte, holding there is no evidence that either the Super Hopper trailer's narrow, slippery top rail or the top two rungs of its access ladders constituted design defects…

The Texas Supreme Court held that governmental immunity generally bars suits for retrospective monetary relief but does not preclude prospective injunctive remedies in official-capacity suits against government actors who violate statutory or constitutional provisions.

The Texas Supreme Court held that an indigent parent may raise an ineffective assistance of counsel claim on direct appeal even though it was not included in a timely statement of points under Family Code section 263.405, and that section 263.405(i) is unconstitutional as applied when it precludes a parent from…

The Texas Supreme Court held that the Pollocks' expert testimony was legally insufficient to support their personal-injury awards: engineer Daniel Kraft's opinion that the family was chronically exposed to 160 ppb of benzene had no basis in the record, his own data placing such concentrations only inside a sealed…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a client-purchase provision in a certified public accountant's at-will employment agreement is an enforceable covenant not to compete under Business and Commerce Code section 15.50(a) because, where the nature of the employment reasonably requires the employer to furnish confidential…

On rehearing, the Texas Supreme Court held that a premises owner may act as its own 'general contractor' under Labor Code section 406.121(1) and, having agreed in writing to provide workers' compensation coverage for its contractor's employees, is entitled to the Act's exclusive-remedy defense as a statutory employer.

The Texas Supreme Court held that Republic Drilling Company, a California corporation, is subject to specific personal jurisdiction in Texas on a Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act claim because it purposefully availed itself of the state by knowingly taking assignment of Texas oil and gas real property, and the…

The Texas Supreme Court held that a decedent employee's pre-death agreement to arbitrate disputes with his employer binds his wrongful death beneficiaries even though they did not sign it, because their statutory wrongful death claims are entirely derivative of the decedent's rights and they stand in his 'legal…