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Can a policyholder sue its insurance company for negligently settling a claim when there is no judgment or settlement in excess of the policy limit? The short answer, based on the Supreme Court of Texas’s ruling in In Re Farmers Texas County Mutual Insurance Company, Realtor on April 23, 2021, is no. In In Re Farmers, Gary Gibson sued Cassandra Longoria, the policyholder, for personal injury and property damages resulting from a car accident that Longoria caused. Longoria’s insurance company, Farmers, hired an attorney to defend her in the lawsuit. Before trial, the case settled for $350,0

The lunar landscape may seem like an appealing change of scenery after 14 long months of the COVID-19 pandemic.  But whether you are embarking on a Space X rocket, Southwest jet, or the elevator of a place of business, are vaccine passports the new norm?  Can businesses require them? 1.    What is a vaccine passport? A vaccine passport is proof that a person has been immunized against COVID-19. It could be in the form of a smartphone app or a written certificate. The idea of a vaccine passport is not new. It was used in a similar sense over a hundred years ago with the plague and smallpox.

This blog marks our 100th since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020.  What began as our quarantine project—reviewing and posting countless city and county face covering and stay-at-home orders to help our clients navigate the complex web of requirements—has somehow morphed into a series of articles about the legal, practical and ethical ramifications of operating a business or just surviving through a modern-day pandemic. Looking back over the last 100 blogs, it is clear life has changed dramatically since our first blog. When the COVID pandemic was in its viral infancy, dete

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