How to Enforce Rule 11 Agreements

The Fifth Court provided a valuable reminder about the enforcement of post-litigation agreements in Patel v. Gonzalez Hotels:

“Written settlement agreements may be enforced as contracts even if one party withdraws consent before judgment is entered on the agreement. When consent is withdrawn, however, the agreed judgment that was part of the settlement may not be entered. The party seeking enforcement of the settlement agreement must pursue a separate claim for breach of contract, which is subject to the normal rules of pleading and proof.” (citation omitted).

However, this principle does not apply to all agreements covered by Tex. R. Civ. P. 11, such as stipulations about evidentiary matters, as discussed in this article I co-authored a couple of years ago on the subject. (A big 600Commerce thanks to the able Ben Taylor for drawing this case to my attention!)