Dallas Austin

In April 2023, a Dallas County jury awarded over $860 million to the family of a woman killed when a crane collapsed on her apartment complex. The jury’s award against real estate developer, Greystar Development & Construction, LP (Greystar), was $160 million more than the Plaintiffs requested. How did this happen? During a severe thunderstorm on June 9, 2019, a tower crane collapsed on the Elan City Lights Apartment Community in Dallas. The collapse injured several residents of the Elan and killed Kiersten Smith. Shortly after the collapse, Smith’s family sued Greystar and two other e

Who decides whether a dispute is properly brought in court or arbitration? The Texas Supreme Court recently weighed in on this issue, holding that a contract referencing a standard set of arbitration rules evidences the parties’ intent to delegate the issue of “arbitrability” to an arbitrator. In Totalenergies E&P USA, Inc. v. MP Gulf of Mexico, LLC, MP Gulf and Total owned an oil-and-gas processing system servicing a group of oil-and-gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The parties agreed to create a “Common System” wherein the parties executed contracts governing multiple facets o

Is a transcript of an arbitration proceeding required to argue that the award should be vacated on appeal?  Matthew Rindt, a Partner at Gerstle Snelson, successfully argued to the Fort Worth Court of Appeals that vacatitur is not appropriate without one. In Spears Construction Management, LLC v. Physical Therapy Dynamics, PLLC, Spears Construction Management, LLC (Spears) entered into a contract with Physical Therapy Dynamics (PTD) to construct a physical therapy facility in Crowley, Texas (Project). The contract contained a binding arbitration clause, requiring any disputes between Spears an

What effect does limiting the amount of required insurance in a construction contract have on an insurer writing umbrella coverage?  The Texas Supreme Court recently considered this issue, answering that the limitation was not incorporated into the umbrella policy and was of no effect. The Court was very familiar with facts of the underlying dispute, ExxonMobil v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA, as it was the second coverage dispute the Court had heard and decided involving the same incident.  Exxon retained Savage Refinery Services (Savage) to perform work at Exxon&

Several new bills affecting the construction industry have been filed in the Texas Legislature’s current session, some of which have been filed and are in the process of being referred to committees. H.B. 2310 by Representative Canalas would require a plaintiff in a commercial construction defect cases, at the time the lawsuit it filed, to attach a sworn verification describing with particularity the alleged defects and the factual basis for why each defendant’s work is implicated.  If the pleading is insufficient, the defendant can ask that the lawsuit be dismissed. If the court finds th