Dallas Austin

When is a policy limits demand insufficient to invoke the Stowers doctrine? The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Golden Bear Insurance Co. v. 34th S&S, LLC d/b/a Concrete Cowboy et al. recently held that plaintiffs’ settlement demand did not meet the requirements of the Stowers  doctrine and, therefore, did not expose the insurer to extracontractual damages. Under the nearly 100-year old Stowers doctrine, an insurer may be liable for damages in excess of its policy limits (extracontractual damages) for negligently failing to settle a third-party claim that resul

Earlier this May, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals, held that a federal law, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (“EFAA”) that went into law in March 2022, barred a requirement of a former nurse to arbitrate claims connected to her termination after reporting that a patient sexually and inappropriately touched her. In SJ Medical Center, LLC dba St. Joseph Medical Center v. Olanma Destiny Anozie, Anozie worked at St. Joseph’s Center for Behavioral Health (“St. Joseph”) as a registered nurse. In December 2022, as Anozie was walking past a mental hea

Is a product manufacturer that complies with federally adopted standards liable for damages under Texas’s statutory product liability law? The Texas Supreme Court in American Honda Motor Company, Inc. v. Milburn, recently addressed a product liability case in which the main issues on appeal was whether Honda defectively designed a seatbelt system that caused severe injuries to Sarah Milburn and whether Texas’s product liability statute, contained in Chapter 82 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 82.008, shielded Honda from liability. Section 82.008 entitles a product man

What is “surface water” and how can diverting it create liability under Texas law?  In Good River Farms, L.P. v. TXI Materials, L.P., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, interpreting Texas law, recently answered these questions. In October 2017, Good River Farms, L.P. (Good River) filed suit against TXI Operations, L.P. and Martin Marietta Materials, Incorporated (Martin Marietta) asserting claims for nuisance, negligence, and violations of the Texas Water Code. The dispute between Good River and Martin Marietta stemmed from a “120-year flood” that occurred near

What duty, if any, does an engineer have to warn of potential hazards associated with a conceptual design? The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, in Alviarez v. Goya Foods, Inc., recently held that no duty existed, granting summary judgment to the engineer. In 2012, Goya Foods Inc. announced plans to open a new facility in Brookshire, Texas and retained Ambitech Engineering Corporation (now part of Zachry Engineering Corp.) to (1) generate conceptual layouts for both the process and packaging areas of the new facility, and (2) with approval from

The Texas Supreme Court, in Texas Department of Insurance v. Stonewater Roofing, Ltd. Co., affirmed the licensing requirements for public adjusters and the prohibition of public adjusters to also act as repair contractors. How did the Court reach this opinion and what impact will it have on the construction industry? In Stonewater, a commercial customer of Stonewater Roofing Ltd. Co. (Stonewater) sued Stonewater for violating the Public Insurance Adjusters Act (“Act”), Texas Insurance Code Chapter 4102. Stonewater then filed a declaratory judgment action against the Texas Department of Ins

In yet another appeal of a nuclear verdict, the Texas Supreme Court recently remanded a $13.7 million verdict on the basis that the trial court may have used the wrong definition of “employee” and insufficient evidence supported piercing the veil of 3 separate corporations. In JNM Express, LLC, ANCA Transport, Inc., Omega Freight Logistics, LLC, Jorge Marin, and Silvia Marin v. Lauro Lozano Jr. and Irene Lozano, Mr. Lozano, an independent contractor truck driver, sued three related corporations alleging each was his employer. Each corporation had common ownership by Jorge and Silvia Marin,