SCOTX adopts “sham affidavit” doctrine

While 600Commerce does not ordinarily cover the Texas Supreme Court, the opinion in Lujan v. Navistar is of unusually broad interest to civil litigators. Navistar contended that Lujan made inconsistent statements about the ownership of a group of trucks, and that as a result, Lujan’s affidavit testimony on the point should be diregarded as a “sham.” The Texas Supreme Court agreed that this was a viable concept in state court summary judgment practice: “Most Texas courts of appeals have recognized the sham affidavit rule as a legitimate component of a trial judge’s authority under Rule 166a to grant summary judgment when no genuine issue as to any material fact exists. The rule has long been applied throughout the federal court system under Rule 56, which contains language nearly identical to Rule 166a. We agree with the majority view that a trial court’s authority to distinguish between genuine and non-genuine fact issues includes the authority to apply the sham affidavit rule when confronted with evidence that appears to be a sham designed to avoid summary judgment.” No. 16-0588 (April 27, 2018).b