Source: http://hankinsonlaw.com/subject-matter/business-litigation/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 10:47:22+00:00

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Hankinson LLP successfully defeated a challenge to a trial court’s ruling in favor of its commercial real estate clients. After a severe hailstorm, the building owners filed claims under their insurance policies for damage to their buildings. The insurance company refused to pay, and the building owners were forced to sue. After actively litigating the case for almost a year, the insurance company attempted to scuttle the litigation by invoking an appraisal clause in the insurance policy. The trial court denied the insurance company’s motion to compel an appraisal. The insurance company sought mandamus relief from this ruling in the Dallas Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court. Both courts denied mandamus relief. Rick Thompson and Joseph Morris briefed the issues in both courts. See In re Lexington Ins. Co., No. 14-0182, in the Texas Supreme Court.
Hankinson LLP defeated an effort to place its client, the Dallas Mavericks, into receivership. A minority stakeholder in the team sued for the appointment of a receiver, claiming that the team was insolvent or in imminent danger of insolvency. Finding no merit to the claims, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Mavericks. On appeal, the Hankinson LLP team successfully defended the trial court’s ruling. Deborah Hankinson argued the case to the Dallas Court of Appeals. Rick Thompson and Joseph Morris drafted the appellate briefs. See Hillwood Inv. Props. III, Ltd. v. Radical Mavericks Mgmt., LLC, No. 05-11-01470-CV, in the Fifth Court of Appeals.
Deborah Hankinson, Rick Thompson, and Jennifer Stagen successfully convinced the Texas Supreme Court to affirm the court of appeals’s take-nothing judgment in favor of their client, Georgia-Pacific Corporation. In this significant asbestos case watched by many legal commentators across the country, the Supreme Court defined the substantial-factor causation standard for mesothelioma cases. The Court ultimately concluded that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that plaintiff’s alleged exposure to asbestos from Georgia-Pacific joint compound was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s mesothelioma. Deborah Hankinson argued the case before the Supreme Court. See Bostic v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., No. 10-0775, 2014 WL 3797159 (Tex. July 11, 2014).
Brett Kutnick and Jennifer Stagen were principal members of the legal team that successfully represented Douglas Strebel in an appeal of a judgment after a jury trial awarding the plaintiff, a member of a Delaware limited liability company and a limited partner in a Texas limited partnership, nearly $3.5 million in lost distributions, attorney’s fees, and interest based on alleged breaches of fiduciary duties by Strebel. Following oral argument, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas in Houston held that the parties contractually disclaimed the fiduciary duties related to profit distributions to the plaintiff. The court thus reversed the judgment on the plaintiff’s breach of fidcuary duty claims and remanded the case to the trial court for consideration of the jury’s alternative liability and damages finding on the plaintiff’s minority oppression claim. Strebel v. Wimberly, 371 S.W.3d 267 (Tex. App.–Houston [1st Dist.] 2012, pet. denied).
Brett Kutnick Presents Article at Advanced Civil Trial Course on Fiduciary Duties.
Brett Kutnick’s article examined the formal and informal relationships that typically give rise to fiduciary duties, the consequences that flow from the existence of a fiduciary duty, and the remedies that are generally available in fiduciary duty cases. Because “fiduciary” concepts remain amorphous under the law, his presentation in Dallas and Houston focused on the traps for both plaintiffs and defendants in fiduciary duty actions. View the pdf here.
Brett Kutnick was the principal author of the appellate briefs in a well-publicized case involving shareholder oppression in which the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas upheld a judgment in favor of the firm’s client, Ann Rupe, based on the jury’s finding that she had been oppressed by the officers and directors of Rupe Investment Corporation. The court of appeals also upheld the trial court’s order requiring the defendants to buy back Ms. Rupe’s stock as an equitable remedy for their misconduct, but remanded the case for further proceedings to determine the fair market value of the stock. Ritchie v. Rupe, 339 S.W.3d 275 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2011), rev’d, 443 S.W.3d 856 (Tex. 2014).
Jennifer Rangel Stagen was on the legal team that represented ACS State and Local Solutions, Inc., a corporation that provides traffic signal enforcement systems to municipalities, in the appeal of a take-nothing summary judgment in its favor. The plaintiff had been cited for a red-light violation, and brought claims against ACS for purported violations of the Texas Debt Collection Act and negligence per se based on alleged violations of the Texas Occupations Code and the Texas Transportation Code. The Dallas Court of Appeals affirmed the summary judgment in favor of ACS on all grounds. Amanda Ward v. ACS State and Local Solutions, Inc., d/b/a LDC Collection Systems, 328 S.W.3d 648 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2010, no pet.).
Brett Kutnick was a principal member of the legal team that represented defendant Peter Gottlieb in an appeal of a judgment awarding the plaintiff $233,000 in actual damages and $466,000 in exemplary damages for fraud after a multi-week jury trial. The Dallas Court of Appeals denied the plaintiff’s appeal seeking additional damages, concluded that there was no evidence to support the jury’s fraud finding against Gottlieb, and reversed the trial court’s judgment and rendered judgment that the plaintiff take nothing from Gottlieb. Cerullo v. Gottlieb, 309 S.W.3d 160 (Tex. App.–Dallas 2010, pet. denied).

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