TCPA Step One Missed

In Trojan Tubular Services, LLC v. Legacy Exploration, LLC, the Fifth Court reviewed whether the TCPA applied to several claims about a company’s efforts to resolve a lawsuit, and ruled, inter alia, as follows.

• The TCPA does not apply to claims based on paying money for a judgment, because paying money is not a “communication” as the TCPA defines that term and thus is not an exercise of the right to petition or free speech.
• The TCPA does not apply to statements disparaging a competitor to its investors (e.g., “do not waste your money on Legacy” or “Legacy is about to go bankrupt”), because the movants did not show those statements involved a matter of public concern or a governmental proceeding—the prerequisites for the rights of association and free speech
• The TCPA does apply, however, to the alleged statement that the movants “were going to prevail” in pending federal litigation. The court held that “a prediction of the outcome of a lawsuit, made by litigants in that very lawsuit, relates directly to, concerns, or has to do with that lawsuit,” making it an exercise of the right to petition. (The Court went on to find that the motion was untimely on this claim).

No. 05-25-00538-CV (June 4, 2026),