NEWS

Congratulations to Tammy Holt, who–on a motion for rehearing–convinced a panel of the Dallas Court of Appeals to reverse itself and award Plaintiffs the total damages ($1,070,050) awarded by jury, rather than a drastically reduced amount ($200,000) based on the amount originally pled.  Rejecting its original position that the Plaintiffs’ attempt to amend its petition to be consistent with the jury’s verdict was an impermissible attempt to amend the pleadings “post-judgment,”  the court of appeals adopted “the more reasonable view” that, because Plaintiffs sought leave to amend their petition before the Amended Final Judgment was signed, the amended pleading was timely.  You can read Tammy’s motion here, and the court of appeals opinion here.

Congratulations to DP&S associate, Lana Beverly, who along with trial counsel Steve Laird and Seth McCloskey, successfully defeated State Farm’s mandamus petition in the Fort Worth Court of Appeals.  Lana convinced the court of appeals that the trial court was correct when it allowed discovery to be conducted regarding State Farm’s claims-handling process and procedures related to its uninsured/underinsured Motorist coverage and was not prohibited by the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in Brainard.  You can read Lana’s briefing here and the court’s opinion here.

Congratulations to DP&S partner, Caren Friedman, who prevailed before the New Mexico Supreme Court!  Caren represented individuals whose appeal was dismissed by the New Mexico Court of Appeals as untimely.  Caren successfully convinced the New Mexico Supreme Court to reinstate Plaintiffs’ appeal.  The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeals improperly gave “greater weight to procedural formalities than to basic rights of appeal” and should have deferred to the district court’s decision to grant an extension of the Plaintiffs’ notice of appeal deadline based on excusable neglect.  You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to DP&S’s Santa Fe Partner, Caren Friedman, who was named a Southwest (New Mexico and Arizona) “Super Lawyer” in the Appellate category for 2020.  This is Caren’s 14th year to be included on this list, and she is one of only five New Mexico attorneys to be included in the Appellate category.

Congratulations to DP&S’s New Mexico partner, Caren Friedman, on her victory in the New Mexico Court of Appeals in a domestic relations appeal.  The Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the district court’s method of calculating the community’s interest in Husband’s retirement benefits and valuing Wife’s share.  The Court of Appeals also affirmed the district court’s refusal to allow Wife’s late-disclosed expert to testify, where Wife offered her expert report months after the evidentiary hearing.  You can read the court’s opinion here.

DP&S is pleased to announce that, once again, its Dallas partners Kirk Pittard, Leighton Durham, Thad Spalding, and Rick Thompson have been named “Super Lawyers” in the Appellate category by Super Lawyers Magazine, a Thomson Reuters publication, for 2020.  Kirk was also named, once again, to the “Top 100” list for Dallas/Fort Worth and–for the first time–to the “Top 100” in Texas.

Congratulations to Dana Levy who successfully convinced the Dallas Court of Appeals to reinstate a medical malpractice case that had been dismissed.  On appeal, Dana convinced the court that a cardiologist with hospital administration experience was qualified to opine as to a hospital’s policies and procedures for providing cardiac care.  You can read Dana’s briefing here, and the Court of Appeals’ opinion here.

Congratulations to Tammy Holt and trial counsel, Rey Perez, who won an appeal in the San Antonio Court of Appeals this week.  The interlocutory appeal was filed by a private entity who contracted with a governmental entity to manage a nursing home.  Claiming derivative sovereign immunity, the private entity tried to claim that it could not be sued because, by contracting with the government, it was entitled to the same immunity from suit the government enjoys.  The trial court declined to dismiss the case.  The private entity appealed and, without reaching the substance of the derivative sovereign immunity claim, the court of appeals dismissed the appeal holding that contracting with a government entity did not transform the contractor into a “governmental entity” entitled to appeal under the interlocutory appeal statute.  You can read Tammy’s briefing here and the court’s opinion here.

Congratulations to Santa Fe Partner, Caren Friedman, who presented argument on behalf of the Petitioners in the New Mexico Supreme Court on September 16, 2020.

The case involved the death of the Petitioners’ 20-year-old daughter when the airbag system in her Ford Ranger truck failed to deploy.  To pile tragedy upon tragedy, after years of litigation, the district court granted summary judgment to Ford Motor Company as a sanction against Petitioners’ trial counsel.  When that same trial counsel then proceeded to miss the deadline for filing an appeal, the New Mexico Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal as untimely.  Caren argued in the New Mexico Supreme Court for the reinstatement of the Petitioners’ appeal, so that their lawsuit may be decided on its merits.  You can listen to Caren’s argument here.

Congratulations to Dallas partners Kirk Pittard and Rick Thompson who have been, once again, named “Best Lawyers” in the Appellate Practice category by The Best Lawyers in America for 2020.  You can see Kirk and Rick’s listing here.