Congratulations to Maria Wormington of Wormington & Bollinger and Christy Wollin and Peter Kelly of Kelly, Durham & Pittard for an excellent appellate win in the Fort Worth Court of Appeals in which the court held that the lower standard of care—“wilful and wanton”—applicable in hospital emergency rooms does not apply to healthcare provided to expectant mothers being treated in an obstetrical unit. The opinion can be found here. Peter Kang, with Law360, wrote an article about the opinion. You can read that article here.
KD&P is pleased to announce that on December 28, 2016, its Dallas office has a new home–the old Cedar Crest house at 2223 W. Jefferson Blvd., in Oak Cliff. John Council wrote a nice article about our move and the new house in the January 2017 edition of Texas Lawyer. You can read the article here.
Congratulations to David and Cris Feldman who, along with Kirk Pittard, successfully convinced the trial court to partially lift a temporary restraining order that had been in place prohibiting the release of any benefits to retired police officers and firefighters from the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. Today’s ruling paves the way for the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund Board to reinstate the payment of the monthly retirement installment benefits upon which many of these retired officers and firefighters rely. Fox 4’s Diana Zoga covered the ruling and interviewed Kirk about the case. You can see her story here.
Baylor law student Cassie Hansen is the winner of Baylor Law School’s first Ultimate Legal Writing Competition! Kelly, Durham & Pittard, LLP is proud to be a sponsor of this writing program, and congratulates Cassie for winning the contest. KD&P also congratulates the second and third place finishers, Jamie Oberg, a third-year law student, and Ashlie Morgan, a recent graduate, for their excellent legal writing skills. You can read about the contest, and see pictures of the award ceremony, here.
Congratulations to Dean Boyd and Jamie Kroon of the Attorney Dean Boyd firm, and Leighton Durham of Kelly, Durham & Pittard on an $8.9M verdict in Dallas County following the bench trial of a case in which the plaintiff, Bobby Tunnell, suffered massive injuries when the car in which he was a passenger hit the defendant’s cow, rolled 8 times and eventually exploded. If not for the heroic efforts of his son pulling him from the burning truck, Mr. Tunnell would have died.
This is the “cow in the road medical malpractice case”—a case in which the owner of the cow, who made no real effort to fence his cattle, happened to be a former doctor who claimed that he should be protected by Texas’ medical malpractice statute. After the defendant’s effort to dismiss the case was rejected by the trial court and the court of appeals, and the defendant and his lawyers’ sanctioned, the case finally proceeded to trial and verdict in Judge Tobolowsky’s court. You can see more about the case here. Congratulations to all of those involved!
Congratulations to Kirk Pittard who was sworn in today to the New Mexico Bar Association! He joins Leighton Durham and Morgan McPheeters as members of the New Mexico bar.
KD&P is pleased to welcome Michael Kawalek as its newest associate. Formerly an associate with Bell, Nunnely, & Martin LLP, and Bickel & Brewer before that, Michael is a 2010 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and brings some significant complex litigation experience to the firm.
Congratulations to David Lopez and Leslie Hyman, of Pulman, Cappucio, Pullen, Benson & Jones, LLP, who, along with the help of Peter Kelly, successfully defended their judgment before Houston’s First Court of Appeals. The appeal involved the validity of an abstract of judgment filed under a Hispanic judgment debtor’s maternal surname. David, Leslie, and Peter successfully convinced the court of appeals that the abstract was sufficient to give notice of the judgment to the public. You can read the opinion here.
Congratulations to KD&P partners Peter Kelly, Kirk Pittard, Leighton Durham, and Thad Spalding
who were once again named “Super Lawyers” in the Appellate category by Super Lawyers Magazine, a Thomson Reuters publication. Peter Kelly was even more super, being named to the Houston region’s list of Top 100 lawyers overall for the second year in a row.