NEWS

Congratulations to Dava Greenberg-Spindler and Kirk Pittard who won a family law case yesterday in the Fort Worth Court of Appeals.  Dava and Kirk represented the parents of a child.  The child’s grandparents filed a suit affecting the parent-child relationship (SAPCR) seeking managing conservatorship over the child.  Dava and Kirk successfully convinced the court of appeals that the grandparents did not have standing to file the SAPCR because they did not have actual care and control over the child for the statutory required six months.  Therefore, the child gets to stay with her mother and father.  You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to KD&P associate, Morgan McPheeters, who successfully convinced Houston’s First District Court of Appeals to affirm the trial court’s ruling, allowing her client’s personal injury claims against the City of Houston to proceed.  After a police dog attacked and injured his minor son, Jesus Roman filed suit against the City of Houston, alleging that the Houston police officers charged with handling the dog were negligent. The City, however, claimed it was immune from suit under the Texas Tort Claims Act because the officers’ conduct was actually an intentional tort for which cities are immune from suit.  The court of appeals rejected the City’s argument, holding that the injuries caused by the police dog were claims arising out of the City’s negligent use of tangible personal property—claims for which the Act allows the City to be sued.  You can read the court of appeals’ opinion here.

KD&P’s loss would be the Fourteenth Court of Appeals’ gain.  KD&P’s Houston partner, Peter M. Kelly, was recently asked to be the Democratic candidate for one of the positions on Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals, and will be on the ballot in this November’s election.  John Council wrote an article in this month’s Texas Lawyer that details the how and why Peter was asked to throw his hat in the ring.  You can read the article here.

Congratulations to KD&P associate Morgan McPheeters who won another case in the Dallas Court of Appeals.  This time, Morgan successfully defended a default divorce decree obtained by a spouse against her incarcerated husband. In the process, the court of appeals rejected the husband’s attempt to challenge the judgment on due process grounds where he failed to file a motion for new trial or otherwise introduce evidence satisfying the Craddock factors. You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to Kirk Pittard and Thad Spalding, who were named “Best Lawyers” in the Appellate category in the May 2016 issue of D Magazine. This is Kirk’s sixth time to be named to the list, and Thad’s fifth.  You can see the entire list of Dallas’s “best lawyers” in the Appellate category here.

Congratulations to KD&P partner, Leighton Durham, and associate, Morgan McPheeters, and trial counsel, Laura Tamez of the Herrera Law Firm, who successfully defended a trial court’s refusal to dismiss a medical malpractice case based on the defendants’ challenge to the Chapter 74 expert reports.  You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to Thad Spalding who was able to convince the Fifth Circuit to reverse a judgment against his client, even after the trial court determined that his client had been sold a helicopter that was not airworthy.  Based on that win, Texas Lawyer named Thad its “Appellate Lawyer of the Week.”  You can read the opinion here, and you can find the Texas Lawyer article about the case and Thad here.

Congratulations to Thad Spalding and Morgan McPheeters who successfully defended a summary judgment in a legal malpractice case in the Dallas Court of Appeals. Dan Tostrud and Matthew Last, with Cobb Martinez Woodward, successfully moved for summary judgment in the trial court in favor of an attorney in a legal malpractice case arising out of the handling of a judicial forfeiture proceeding, where the former client’s only evidence of causation was the conclusory affidavit of another attorney who simply claimed that he had successfully handled other forfeiture proceedings in the past and, because this particular case had not been successful, the attorney was therefore negligence.  The Dallas Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court and affirmed the summary judgment.  You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to Christy Wollin, an Associate in KD&P’s Dallas office, who was named a “Rising Star” in the Appellate Practice category for the third year in a row.  You can see the entire list of Appellate “Rising Stars,” including Christy, here.  Way to go, Christy!

Yesterday, Leighton Durham joined Morgan McPheeters as a member of the New Mexico Bar Association.