Thanks to a persuasive letter from a typographically sophisticated attorney, the Maryland Supreme Court recently recently modernized its list of acceptable fonts, as follows (omitting Palatino and Equity, however). Thanks to my law partner Greg Brassfield for drawing this to my attention!

Also of general interest, the letter links to an informative series of Tweets about the typography used in the federal courts of appeal.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, by any measure one of the world’s largest airports, sprawls into the boundaries of four cities and two counties. But that undisputed fact does not automatically establish venue over American Airlines in Dallas County, as shown by American Airlines v. Halkuff:

American offered evidence that the facts giving rise to appellees’ claims arose in Tarrant County because the terminal where the incident took place is—like all DFW terminals—located in Tarrant County. American’s undisputed evidence included specific identification of Terminal D and Gate D-38 as the location where the flight at issue boarded. According to American’s evidence, Terminal D and its associated runways are located entirely in Tarrant County. This evidence not only disproved appellees’ venue fact, it also amounted to evidence that Tarrant County was a proper venue.

No. 05-23-00621-CV (Oct. 18, 2023) (mem. op.).

The Fifth Court confirmed the confirmation of an arbitration award arising from a dispute about the purchase of a surgical center in Minimally Invasive Surgery Inst., LLC v. MISI Realty CC Dallas, LP. It reminded about two basic points in challenging arbitration awards:

• “‘Manifest disregard of the law‘ is not a valid ground for vacating an arbitration award under the FAA or TAA.”
• “[T]he Final Award notes the four-day arbitration included offers of proof, counsel statements, witness testimony, deposition and documentary evidence, and post-arbitration briefs. The arbitration award also states: ‘All issues have been determined by the evidence presented during the full arbitration.’ The award provides findings and conclusions with analysis. But the record contains little more than the arbitration award, the lease agreement, and the trial court order granting the motion to confirm the arbitration award. There is no list of exhibits or witnesses, no record of exhibits admitted into evidence or rulings on evidentiary objections, and no transcript of the proceedings. The trial court and appellate records do not include a complete record of the arbitration, and what is included is insufficient to allow this Court to conduct a meaningful review of any claimed ‘manifest disregard of the law’ by the arbitrator.”

No. 05-22-00581-CV (Oct. 19, 2023) (mem. op.) (emphasis added).

The Fifth Court declined to resolve a dispute about a spoliation instruction when the relevant record was as follows:

It is not clear what happened. We are reasonably confident that a charge conference of some kind took place during the “Off-the-record discussion” noted in the reporter’s record passage quoted above. Judge Moyé said, “We are off the record,” just before the unrecorded discussion occurred, so perhaps the attorneys were on notice that the court reporter was not transcribing their objections to the final charge. Then again, perhaps they weren’t. Perhaps something happened during the unrecorded conference to make the Monzingos’ attorney reasonably but erroneously believe that the court reporter had begun recording the charge conference before he made his objections to the charge. And during this appeal, Flories has never argued that the Monzingos failed to preserve their second issue.

Monzingo v. Flories, No. 05-22-00719-CV (Oct. 12, 2023).

A contentious eviction case was resolved with a straightforward jurisdictional principle in In re Saving Grace #2, LLC:

Here, the county court’s final judgment was signed on September 1, 2022. No appropriate motion to extend the trial court’s plenary jurisdiction was filed within 30 days of the final judgment. Thus, the county court’s plenary jurisdiction expired on October 1, 2022. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b(d). The county court’s stay order was entered on May 19, 2023—well past that deadline. Because the county court may not issue a stay order after plenary power expires, see Tex. R. Civ. P. 329b(f) (explaining the limited actions a court may take after plenary power expires), we conclude that the stay order issued seven months after plenary power expired is void.

No. 05-23-00745-CV (Oct. 13, 2023).

Empowerment Homes LLC v. Aleman undid a series of unfortunate events surrounding a default judgment, as follows:

• Incorrect, but well-intentioned, answer. “Arce filed a pro se answer using a standard “Defendant’s Answer” form. He incorrectly identified “Empowerment Homes LLC” as “Plaintiff,” but then listed his information under section “1. Defendant’s Information.” He signed the Answer in his individual capacity. He indicated in his affidavit attached to the motion for new trial he “thought I was answering on behalf of both myself and Defendant Empowerment Homes, LLC. I was not aware that I could not represent Empowerment Homes, LLC as I am not an attorney licensed in the State of Texas.” Under these facts, we conclude Arce tried, albeit deficient, to answer on behalf of Empowerment.”
• Deemed admissions. “The court held a hearing on the motions, and Arce attended. Appellants do not assert, and the record does not imply, Arce asked to withdraw the deemed admissions at the hearing. Instead, despite notice of the mistake prior to entry of final judgment, appellants did nothing and waited until the motion for new trial to request withdrawal of the deemed admissions. Thus, the equitable considerations that might permit a party to move post-judgment for withdrawal of deemed admissions are not present in this case.”
• Misuse of deemed admissions.  “Because appellees failed to establish an element of their summary judgment burden—that Arce acted in bad faith or callous disregard to the rules by not answering the request for admissions—the trial court erred in granting summary judgment based on the deemed admissions.”

No. 05-22-01082-CV (Oct. 9, 2023).

Mode, a Texas-based provider of transportation services, had a contract with Boyer (and later, his company, MTSI) to act as its sales agent. After some years under the contract, Boyer sought to sell MTSI to an unrelated company called MX, while also discussing a potential sale of MTSI to Mode.

When Mode learned of the Boyer-MX communications, it sued all three parties (Boyer, MTSI, and MX) for taking trade secrets; Boyer and MTSI for breach of their sales-rep contract with Mode; and MX for tortiously interfering with that contract.

The Fifth Court affirmed the denial of the special appearance made by Boyer and MTSI, noting that significant business they conducted in Texas pursuant to their relationship with Mode. But the Court reversed the denial of MX’s special appearance, noting recent Texas and U.S. Supreme Court opinions about “stream of commerce” jurisdictional issues, and nevertheless concluding: “Mode seeks to premise specific jurisdiction over MX based on the ‘directed a tort’ or ‘effects’ theory” that the Texas Supreme Court has rejected. Boyer v. Mode Transp., LLC, No. 05-23-00008-CV (Oct. 4, 2023) (mem. op.).

Boyer v. Mode Transp., LLC, decided by the Fifth Court last week, provides a useful “update” of special-appearance law after some recent Texas and U.S. Supreme Court opinions, and I’ll have a post about it later in the week. A footnote involves an important practical issue in preparing a case for appeal:

The public clerk’s record will contain redacted versions of anything that was filed under seal, pursuant to a protective order, etc. Counsel has to identify such materials before briefing starts and find a way to get that material to the court of appeals before briefing begins. That often requires some coordination with the staff of both the relevant trial and appeals court.

Together with the able Ben Taylor, I have an article in the most recent Baylor Law Review called “Judgment Rendition in Texas.” The abstract is below. Our article was inspired by a 1975 article by Justice Robert Calvert in the Texas Tech Law Review called “Appellate Court Judgments or Strange Things Happen on the Way to Judgment.” We hope that we updated some of his insights for modern-day appellate practice.

The Fifth Court affirmed the denial of a TCPA motion to dismiss on procedural grounds in Quality Cleaning Plus, Inc. v. Preferred Staff, LLC:

“When a separate and independent ground that supports a ruling is not challenged on appeal, we must affirm the lower court’s ruling.” Here, Preferred argued in the trial court that the TCPA is inapplicable on several bases, each of which constituted an independent ground that could support the trial court’s ruling. QCP did not address or mention any of these bases in its appellate brief. Because QCP failed to challenge every independent basis supporting the trial court’s ruling, we must affirm that ruling.”

(citations omitted). Importantly for practitioners who file TCPA motions: the panel majority denied a sanctions motion about this TCPA filing, but a concurrence questioned whether the appeal – particularly, in light of the failure to address the issue noted above – had been taken in good faith or simply to obtain the benefits of the statutory stay.