NEWS
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.
Congratulations to Jason Gibson and Casey Jordan of The Gibson Law Firm who, along with the help of Peter Kelly, successfully prosecuted a wrongful death case against Manhattan-Vaughn on behalf of Angel Garcia’s family. Angel Garcia was killed on December 4, 2013, during the construction of Kyle Field. His family filed suit, and on February 10, 2016, the jury awarded Garcia’s family $54 million. You can read more about the case in the Houston Chronicle here.
Congratulations to Kirk Pittard and Leighton Durham who successfully convinced the Dallas Court of Appeals to not only dismiss an appeal, but to sanction both the defense attorney and his doctor client for pursuing a frivolous appeal. The “cow in the road” appeal, which stems from serious injuries our client suffered when he ran into a cow owned by a former doctor, began when the former doctor argued that, simply because he was a doctor, the personal injury case was actually a healthcare liability claim which required a Chapter 74 expert report. The trial court denied the doctor’s motion, and the doctor appealed. Following the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in Ross v. St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, 462 S.W.3d 496 (Tex. 2015), Leighton sent opposing counsel a letter notifying him that, in light of Ross, the appeal was frivolous and should be dismissed. When he refused to do so, Kirk and Leighton asked that the appeal be dismissed and that they be awarded all attorneys’ fees incurred in defending the frivolous appeal. On February 9, 2016, the Dallas Court of Appeals agreed that the appeal was frivolous and sanctioned both the defense counsel and the doctor. You can read about the case in the Texas Lawyer here, or Law360.com here. A copy of the court’s opinion can be found here.