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If you have ever driven through the Texas Panhandle, no doubt you have come across a wind-turbine or two. For instance, the Roscoe wind farm, located about 45 miles south-west of Abilene, is the largest onshore wind farm in the world – employing 627 turbines over 100,000 acres of land, stretching through Mitchell, Nolan, and Scurry counties. Although the Roscoe wind farm is just over 11 years old, having been put into operation in 2009, other wind-turbines, like ones located at the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm in California that started development in the 1980s, are nearing the end of their l

The Texas Senate recently approved Senate Bill 14 (“SB14”), coined the Business Freedom and Uniformity Act, which would ban cities and counties from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave, predictable work schedules, and other employee benefits. Supporters of the bill believe that it will allow businesses to operate in multiple cities. However, opponents have called it an existential threat to Texas workers. In the past three years, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio passed paid-sick-leave ordinances, requiring employers to pay employees who use earned sick leave for hours spent not

The Texas Legislature is set to end the session on May 31, 2021.  The following are three bills which could be of interest to contractors and construction companies. 1.    Protections from Pandemic Liability Several bills have been filed in both the house and Senate related shielding business from liability associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. HB 3 is currently pending in the House Committee and would provide liability protections for businesses operating during a pandemic so long as the business “knew of the risk of exposure or potential exposure, … made a reasonable effort to comply

The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) protects consumers from fraudulent business practices that, before its creation in 1973, had allowed unscrupulous business owners to take advantage of unwary consumers. The DTPA has been modified and changed several times since its creation by the Texas Legislature. However, one constant in the statute has been its definition of a consumer. What is a consumer under the DTPA? The DTPA defines a consumer as “an individual, partnership, corporation, this state, or a subdivision or agency of this state who seeks or acquires by purchase or lease, any

The pandemic has taken the world by storm, U.S. insurers being no exception. As a result of the onslaught of business interruption claims and litigation expenses, insurance companies are revisiting and, in a few instances, rewriting some of the language in their policies. The insurers’ ultimate goal in tweaking the policies is to reduce future exposure associated with pandemic-related claims and to reduce their expenses in defending declinations of coverage. Following the SARS epidemic in 2003, many insurers began appending a virus or communicable disease exclusionary endorsement to first-pa

Cryptocurrency is a bit of a loaded term. For some, it is a fascinating form of the future incarnate. For others, just reading the term “cryptocurrency” in an article triggers an automatic reflex to click on another story. Regardless of your comfort level, the reality is that cryptocurrency is here and trending to become more and more commonplace. Two recent examples show just how prevalent cryptocurrencies have become. Exhibit A: PayPal, one of the largest online payment systems in the world, has announced that it will be launching a cryptocurrency checkout service allowing consumers to p

The Texas Supreme Court in Los Compadres Pescadores, LLC v. Juan Valdez, et al., recently explored what constitutes a dangerous condition to an improvement to property that caused a construction work-site injury. The Court also addressed the types of evidence it found conclusive in holding a property owner vicariously liable for the acts of a 1099 independent contractor. Los Compadres Pescadores, the property owner, planned to build a 4-unit condominium building on South Padre Island. A high-voltage powerline ran about 24 feet above the back property line through an easement.  It was undisput