Horned Frogs Dominate

In the wake of In re: Houston Specialty Ins. Co., No. 17-1060 (Tex. 2019), the Fifth Court released a revised opinion in In re Texas Christian Univ, concluding that TCU’s filing of a Tarrant County declaratory judgment action established “dominant jurisdiction” as to a damages case filed against it the next day in Dallas County. Applying the Houston Specialty framework, the Court found that the two lawsuits were “inherently interrelated,” a test substantially derived from the compulsory counterclaim rule. The Court found no exception to the applicability of the “first-filed” rule in this situation, noting that complaints about the propriety of the Tarrant County action were for that court, and “as the case currently stands, the Tarrant County court concluded TCU’s claims are not frivolous by denying [Dallas Plaintiff’s] rule 91a motion to dismiss.” No. 05-18-00967-CV (Feb. 6, 2019).