NEWS
KD&P is pleased to announce that, for the fifth year in a row, Kirk Pittard has been recognized by D Magazine as one of the best lawyers in Dallas in the Appellate practice category. Congratulations Kirk!
On Friday, April 10, 2015, Leighton Durham and trial counsel, Dean Boyd, successfully defeated the defendant’s now widely-publicized effort to have their client’s case dismissed pursuant to Texas’s medical malpractice statute solely on the basis that the cow’s owner, and defendant in the case, is a retired doctor. A Texas Lawyer article discussing the case can be found here.
Peter Kelly is urging the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider its March 6, 2015 decision in The Fredericksburg Care Co., L.P. v. Juanita Perez, et al. (No. 13-0573), and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the Texas Association of Defense Counsel, the Texas Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and even Texas Mutual Liability Trust, a medical malpractice insurer, have joined him in that request. The opinion holds that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts a provision of Texas’s medical malpractice statute that allows medical malpractice cases to be subject to arbitration, but only if certain statutory notices are provided in the arbitration agreement and the agreement is signed by the patient’s attorney. The opinion can be found here, Peter’s briefs and those of the other amici can be found here, and a Texas Lawyer article about the case can be found here.
On March 26, 2015, KD&P partner Peter Kelly presented argument to the Texas Supreme Court on behalf of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association regarding Texas’s statutory punitive damages caps. A summary of the case, Mirta Zorrilla v. Aypco Constr. II, LLC, et al., No. 14-0067, and Peter’s argument can be found here. Peter’s argument begins at the 30 minute mark.
On March 24, 2015, KD&P partner Kirk Pittard testified before the Texas House of Representatives’ Committee on Business and Industry against HB 1603, a “chancery court” bill which would create special courts for special commercial interests in contravention of the Texas Constitution and which would be detrimental to the citizens of Texas. Kirk’s testimony can be seen here beginning at 3:05:00.
KD&P is pleased to announce that, for the second year in a row, Christy Wollin has been named a “Rising Star” in the Appellate category by Super Lawyers Magazine, a publication of Thomson Reuters and the publishers of Texas Monthly. Congratulations, again, Christy!
Kelly, Durham & Pittard, LLP is pleased to announce the addition of Morgan A. McPheeters as a new associate in the Dallas office. Morgan is a 2014 cum laude graduate of Baylor Law School, with a concentration in business litigation, is already licensed to practice law in New Mexico and just sat for the Texas Bar Exam last month. Welcome to the firm Morgan.
On February 25, 2015, Peter Kelly defended a discovery order requiring the disclosure of peer-review committee documents before the Texas Supreme Court. Peter presented argument on behalf of the Respondent, Dr. Miguel Gomez, in In re Hermann Hosp. Sys., No. 14-0171. The issue concerns whether (1) the statutory medical-committee privilege protects documents potentially discoverable under the “anticompetitive exception” to the statutory privilege and (2) the exception requires that an antitrust claim be pled. A Law360.com article regarding the case can be viewed here (“Hospital Fights Privileged Docs“) and a summary of the issue and Peter’s argument can be viewed here.
Congratulations to Rachel Montes and Todd Tracy who, along with the support of Leighton Durham, obtained an $18,745,001 verdict in the 95th Judicial District Court in Dallas County on February 13, 2015. The jury’s verdict was based on injuries Hope Crump suffered when she was ejected from a vehicle in which she was a passenger. Hope was rendered a paraplegic as a result of the accident. The jury found John Goin, the driver of the vehicle, to be the primary cause of the accident. Goin, who lost control of the vehicle and caused it to roll over, was intoxicated at the time. A Dallas Morning News article regarding the case can be found here.
Leighton Durham was interviewed by John Council of Texas Lawyer regarding opposing counsel’s unusual motion to dismiss filed in a case in which he and Dean Boyd represent a plaintiff injured when he ran into a cow that escaped from the defendant’s property. Because the owner of the cow is a retired doctor, opposing counsel moved to declare the case a health care liability case and dismiss it for failing to comply with the expert report requirements of the health care liability statute. You can read the Texas Lawyer article and Leighton’s comments here (“How is Hitting A Cow Med Mal“), and you can read the Dallas Court of Appeals opinion denying the opposing counsel mandamus relief here.