NEWS

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.

Congratulations to Lana Beverly who won an appeal in front of Houston’s First Court of Appeals this week.  The case involved a facility for young people with disabilities in which the Defendants filed a second Ch. 74 motion to dismiss claiming the case was a medical malpractice case and required an expert report.  Given that this was the second time Defendants had asserted this argument, Lana successfully convinced the Court of Appeals that the law of the case, as determined the first time Defendants made this argument, controlled the case and did not allow a second attempt to claim that the case was a medical malpractice case.  You can read Lana’s briefing here and read the opinion here.

Congratulations to firm client Parker Waichman LLP on securing a denial of a motion to dismiss filed by Defendant Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. in a case pending in the District of New Mexico alleging that Novartis hid serious side effects of its blood cancer drug Tasigna.  Novartis argued that the plaintiff failed to allege the exact date he was diagnosed with the side effects, and thus he should not be able to move forward with his negligence and product liability claims.  U.S. District Judge James A. Parker disagreed, finding that the plaintiff was not required to preemptively refute Novartis’ affirmative defenses, and that his lawsuit can proceed.  You can read the Court’s opinion here.  You can also read a Law360.com article about the case here.

Congratulations to Thad Spalding who, along with Kevin Parker, Richard LaGarde, and Manfred Sternberg, was successful in convincing the Texas Supreme Court to deny immunity to GTECH, a private contractor hired by the Texas Lottery Commission to design and manufacture instant scratch-off tickets.  You can see the Nettles briefing and argument here and here, and the Steele briefing and argument here and here, and you can read the Court’s majority opinion here.  You can also read a Law360.com article about the case here.

Congratulations to Dana Levy on her successful defense of medical malpractice expert reports before Houston’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals.  The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s denial of Chapter 74 motions to dismiss filed by various health care providers, finding that the challenged experts were qualified and that their reports satisfied Chapter 74’s gate-keeping functions in all respects.  You can read Dana’s briefing here, and the court of appeals opinion here.

Congratulations to Dany Levy, DP&S’s newest partner!  Dana joined the firm in 2017 as Of Counsel and, since January 2019, has headed up the firm’s Houston office.  We are proud of all that Dana has accomplished and look forward to many more successes.

Congratulations to Tammy Holt and Thad Spalding who, along with trial counsel Kenneth Chaiken, successfully reversed a summary judgment in a dispute over the terms and requirements of a Cross Purchase Agreement, and whether that agreement required remaining shareholders in a closely-held corporation to purchase their client, a retiring shareholder’s shares.  The Court of Appeals also rendered judgment in their client’s favor and remanded the case for purposes of valuing the shares pursuant to the terms of the parties’ agreement.  You can read the opinion here.

Congratulations to DP&S attorney Tammy Holt who successfully reversed a summary judgment granted against the plaintiff in a dog bite case!  Tammy successfully convinced the court of appeals that the plaintiff’s claims of strict liability, negligent handling, and gross negligence were supported by deposition testimony that dog was “leery” around strangers, prone to nip at heels, and that owners considered putting the dog away when plaintiff visited, but decided not to.  The court of appeals also refused to hold that compliance with a local leash law negated an element of plaintiff’s claim when the plaintiff did not allege a violation of the leash law.  You can read the San Antonio Court of Appeals decision here.