NEWS

Congratulations to KD&P’s Houston partner, Peter Kelly, who was elected to serve on Houston’s First Court of Appeals yesterday.  Peter will take office beginning January 1, 2019, and will make an outstanding justice on the First Court of Appeals.  The firm will miss Peter dearly, but the firm’s loss is the Houston area’s gain.  We are extremely proud of Peter, wish him great success in this new venture, and look forward to reading his opinions!!

Kelly, Durham & Pittard, LLP is proud to announce that Associate Morgan McPheeters was awarded the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association’s 2018 John Howie Award for her “courageous pursuit of justice in the face of adversity” and ultimate victory at the Texas Supreme Court in State of Texas v. T.S.N.  Morgan’s work on this case helped change expunction law to ensure that Texans who have been arrested but not convicted of a crime receive a fresh start. Morgan accepted the award at the DTLA luncheon on October 18, 2018.

Peter Kelly and Kirk Pittard were at it again last week, both arguing cases before the Texas Supreme Court.

Peter argued on Tuesday, Texas Health Presbyterian Hosp. v. D.A. and M.A., regarding whether the heightened standard of proof applicable to emergency care physicians applies to a birth injury case in which the mother was not first seen or treated in the emergency room.  Peter’s argument can be seen here.

On Thursday, Kirk argued on behalf of Dallas first-responders in Larry Eddington, et al. v. Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, in a case dealing with whether the first-responders’ retirement benefits are protected by the Texas Constitution.  Kirk’s argument can be seen here.

Congratulations to KD&P associate, Morgan McPheeters, who successfully defended a Chapter 74 medical expert report in Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals!  The case, Pettway v. Olvera, No. 14-17-00532-CV, 2018 WL 4016949 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Aug. 23, 2018, no pet. h.) (mem. op.), affirms the sufficiency of a report of a a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who offers his opinion as to the standard of care required of an emergency physician prescribing crutches.  You can read the opinion here, and a Law360.com article about it here.

Congratulations to Justin Kaufman, who was sworn in today to the State Bar of Texas by our own Kristi Lassiter at our Dallas office.  Justin, who heads up KD&P’s Santa Fe office, is now licensed to practice in Texas, New Mexico, and New York.

Congratulations to KD&P Partner, Peter Kelly, and Of Counsel, Dana Levy, who secured two reversals in the Fifth Circuit in the last two weeks of June!

The first, Garcia v. Wal-Mart Stores Texas, involved a slip-and-fall in which the Court reversed a summary judgment finding that circumstantial creation evidence—evidence that the owner of a premises created the dangerous condition—can support an inference of knowledge on the part of the owner.  You can read that opinion here.

The second opinion, Littell v. Houston Indep. Sch. Dist., involved a civil rights case in which, in the Court’s words, “[d]uring a sixth-grade choir class, an assistant principal allegedly ordered a mass, suspicionless strip search of the underwear of twenty-two preteen girls. All agree the search violated the girls’ constitutional rights under Texas and federal law. Even so, the district court dismissed the girls’ lawsuit against the school district for failure to state a claim. We reverse.”  The school district argued that it had a constitutionally-qualified policy regarding body searches of students.  Peter and Dana argued that having a written policy in a notebook on a shelf is useless unless teachers and administrators are actually trained in those policies.  At oral argument, Peter quoted James Brown to make the point:  “Sayin’ it and doin’ it is two different things.”  The Fifth Circuit rejected the school district’s arguments, allowing all of the claims (1983, state constitutional, and injunctive) to proceed on the merits.  This second win garnered Peter “Appellate Lawyer of the Week” honors from Texas Lawyer.  You can read the opinion here, and John Council’s Texas Lawyer article about the case here.

Congratulations to KD&P associate Morgan McPheeters who won an important expunction case in the Texas Supreme Court, affirming the right of wrongfully accused people, acquitted of a crime, to have the records related to that acquitted offense expunged from public records.  You can read a copy of the opinion here.

Congratulations to Kirk Pittard and Thad Spalding  who have been named “best lawyers” by D Magazine in the Appellate category for 2018.

Congratulations to Peter Kelly, who won an important case in the Texas Supreme Court this week addressing an employer’s responsibility for its employees’ conduct, convincing the Texas Supreme Court to reverse the El Paso Court of Appeals, clarify the standard for holding employers liable for their employees’ acts, and remanding the case for trial on the merits.  You can read the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in Painter v. Amerimex Drilling I, Ltd. here .

Congratulations to KD&P associate, Jessica Foster, whose report on groundwater rules applicable to communities along the Texas-Mexico border was published today by Texas A&M School of Law!  You can see the press release regarding Jessica’s paper here, and you can read the report here.