On May 25, 2015, John Council and the Texas Lawyer featured Leighton Durham and the cow in the road case again. In this installment, the Texas Lawyer zeros in on a motion to dismiss Leighton filed with the Dallas Court of Appeals, urging the court to not only dismiss the defendants’ appeal but also award Leighton’s client the attorney’s fees incurred in having to ask the court to do so.
Another month, another big win for Peter Kelly, this time in In re Memorial Herman Hosp. Sys., No. 14-0171, — S.W.3d —, 2015 WL 2438752 (Tex. May 22, 2015). In this case, Dr. Gomez brought suit against Memorial Hermann, his former employer, seeking damages caused by the hospital’s defamatory “whisper campaign” against him. The hospital claimed that all the relevant documents were protected by the medical peer review privilege; on mandamus, the Texas Supreme Court held that the “anticompetitive action” exception to the privilege applies, and ordered the vast majority of the documents produced.
On April 24, 2015, the Texas Supreme Court decided Brown & Gay Eng’g, Inc. v. Olivares, No. 13-0605, — S.W.3d —, 2015 WL 1897646 (Tex. April 24, 2015), a case in which a private engineering firm retained by a governmental entity to design and build a toll road asserted “derivative sovereign immunity” in an effort to protect itself from liability for a three-fatality accident caused by its own negligent design. Peter Kelly convinced the Texas Supreme Court to decline to expand the doctrine of governmental immunity to extend to private entities that contract with the government, and allowed the underlying lawsuit against the engineering firm to proceed. Justice Lehrmann’s opinion can be found here, and a concurring opinion by Chief Justice Hecht can be found here.
KD&P is pleased to announce that Morgan McPheeters passed the Texas Bar Exam! Morgan is now licensed to practice law in Texas and New Mexico. Congratulations Morgan!
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!