Court Opinion

ID: 9681215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:46:09.040945+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:32.720228
License: Public Domain

MAUZY, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority today ignores stare decisis and cavalierly overrules the court’s recent decisions in Bessent v. Times-Herald Printing Co., 709 S.W.2d 635 (Tex.1986), and Beaumont Enterprise & Journal v. Smith, 687 S.W.2d 729 (Tex.1985). While stare decisis should remain a flexible doctrine, I see no compelling reason to overturn established Texas summary judgment law in this area of the law.
Nonetheless, the trial court was correct in rendering summary judgment for Casso. For almost five years, Brand had an opportunity to conduct his own discovery to rebut Casso’s allegations of lack of malice in an attempt to raise a fact issue but chose not to do so. Under Channel 4, KGBT v. Briggs, 759 S.W.2d 939 (Tex.1988), considering the evidence presented by the parties on the issue of actual malice, the trial court was correct in rendering summary judgment for Casso. For this reason, the judgment of the court of appeals should be reversed and that of the trial court should be affirmed.