East Texas Salt Water Disposal Co. v. Richard Leon Werline, No. 07-0135 (Tex. Mar. 12, 2010) (docket and briefs)

Divided 6-3, the Texas Supreme Court held that the Texas Arbitration Act

… allows an appeal from a trial court’s order that denies confirmation of an arbitration award and instead, vacates the award and directs that the dispute be arbitrated anew.

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Texas Department of Insurance v. Reconveyance Services, Inc., No. 07-0786 (Tex. Mar. 12, 2010) (per curiam) (docket and briefs)

Reconveyance Services brought suit seeking a declaration that a fee imposed by TDI was outside the scope of Texas law. The court of appeals concluded that this claim against the state was within the trial court’s jurisdiction. The Texas Supreme Court held that it was not properly framed and ordered it dismissed.

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TXI Transportation Co. v. Randy Hughes, No. 07-0541 (docket and briefs)

The Texas Supreme Court reversed a jury verdict about an auto accident that was based, in part, on testimony that one driver was an illegal immigrant. The Court concluded that the driver’s immigration status was not relevant to the claims at issue and that its admission risked harmful prejudice.

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Spectrum Healthcare Resources, Inc. and Michael Sims v. Janice McDaniel and Patrick McDaniel, No. 07-0787 (Tex. Mar. 12, 2010) (docket and briefs)

With today’s case, the answer is that “an agreed docket control order must explicitly reference section 74.351 threshold expert reports if the order is to constitute an agreement to extend that deadline.”

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With today’s orders list, the Texas Supreme Court issued opinions in eight cases and set six more for the April argument calendar.

Among today’s cases were the TXI Transportation v. Hughes case about whether testimony about a defendant’s status as an illegal immigrant is harmful error (it is) and two cases about whether a medical-malpractice plaintiff in a so-called “sponge case” can raise an Open Courts challenge to get around time limits (yes to the two-year statute of limitations; no to the ten-year statute of repose). There was also a potentially tricky case for medical-malpractice plaintiffs about which discovery orders extend the 120-day expert-report deadline and which don’t. (You should hope you were very explicit.)

Those opinion summaries are on the way.

Here are the new cases the Court has accepted for its April argument calendar:

Cases set for argument April 14, 2010

• Railroad Commission of Texas v. Texas Citizens for a Safe Future and Clean Water and James G. Popp, No. 08‑0497 (docket and briefs)

• Texas Mutual Insurance Co. v. Timothy J. Ruttiger, No. 08‑0751 (docket and briefs)

• Italian Cowboy Partners, Ltd., Francesco Secchi and Jane Secchi v. The Prudential Insurance Co. and Four Partners, LLC, No. 08‑0989 (docket and briefs)

Cases set for argument April 15, 2010

• TGS-Nopec Geophysical Co. d/b/a TGS-Nopec Corp. v. Susan Combs, Comptroller of Public Accounts and Greg Abbott, No. 08‑1056 (docket and briefs)

• Liana Leordeanu v. American Protection Insurance Co., No. 09‑0330 (docket and briefs)

• In re Rio Queen Citrus, Inc. and Elmore Stahl, Inc., No. 09-0491 (docket and briefs)

There is a new appellate law blog to add to your feed readers. Kendall Gray has been working toward the launch of The Appellate Record for some time. Today, I got a tweet announcing that it was finally live.

So check it out. His first few posts cover a little of everything.

Yesterday, the Texas Supreme Court approved a new local rule for the Third Court (covering Austin) that provides a framework for electronic district court records. The documents in the appellate record can now be submitted as scanned, word-searchable PDFs.

The order is here.

The Texas Supreme Court did not issue any opinions or grant any petitions for review with today’s orders list.

The Court is scheduled to meet for a full conference next Monday and Tuesday. The next oral argument sitting will begin on March 23, 2010.

There were two contested primary elections for the Texas Supreme Court. The results are:

Place 3

In a remarkably close six-way election, Rick Green and Debra Lehrmann appear set for an April 13th runoff for the Republican nomination to Place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court.

With 99.98% (all but two) of Texas’s precincts reporting:¹

The top two vote getters make the runoff. Rick Green finished first with 18.96%.²

The margin between 2nd (Debra Lehrmann) and 3rd (Jim Moseley) to qualify for the runoff appears to be just about 1,000 votes out of more than 1.1 million votes cast in this primary. The margin between 3rd (Jim Moseley) and 4th (Rebecca Simmons) is roughly the same.

That’s a very thin margin, and these results might still change as provisional ballots or other votes are counted.

The winner of the April 13th runoff will face Jim Sharp (D) and William Strange (L) on the November ballot.

Place 9

As noted last night, Justice Eva Guzman has staved off a primary challenge from Rose Vela.

Justice Guzman will face Blake Bailey (D) and Jack Armstrong (L) on the November ballot.

1. Updated to reflect numbers accurate as of 12:48 p.m. on March 3. As votes continue to trickle in, the numbers have closed slightly, with Lehrmann down from 18.22% to 18.20% and Moseley up from 18.12% to 18.13%. [↩]
2. This was a six-way race, so everyone expected a runoff, but the evenness of this race was pretty remarkable. I am going to study those numbers a little more, once they are finalized. [↩]

I’ve been hitting “reload” on the Secretary of State’s website this evening, and I’ve tweeted a few updates as the Place 3 race has changed. A runoff is a certainty. Which candidates will appear on that ballot remains too close to call. Rick Green and Debra Lehrmann are in the lead as I write this (around midnight, with 85% of the vote counted).

In Place 9, Eva Guzman has held off a challenge from Rose Vela to hold the Republican nomination for the fall. At this point, Guzman has roughly 65% of the vote to Vela’s 35%.

There are two Texas Supreme Court seats with contested races in the March 2, 2010 Texas primary. Links to newspaper endorsements and candidate profiles are on my “2010 Elections” page.

Three candidates (all for Place 3) responded to the Q&A sent out by the blog — Rebecca Simmons, Rick Strange, and Debra Lehrmann.

If you need more information, you can get links to the official campaign websites for Place 3 candidates or Place 9 candidates.

I’m pleased to present you with our third candidate Q&A of the 2010 election season.

Judge Debra Lehrmann currently serves as District Judge of the 360th Judicial District in Fort Worth. She is one of six Republicans vying for the nomination for Place 3, the seat being vacated by the retirement of Justice Harriet O’Neill.

Click through for the complete candidate Q&A with Judge Lehrmann