Last year, San Antonio joined the Austin in passing a law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. Last week, business owners fought back. A coalition of business groups filed a lawsuit alleging that the city ordinance, which is set to take effect on August 1,...
Houston Business & Commercial Law Blog
ADT awarded $4 million in deceptive trade practices suit
A jury in the Southern District of Florida awarded security firm ADT $4 million in damages in the culmination of its deceptive trade practices lawsuit against Alder Holdings, Inc. ADT's dispute with Alder dates back to around 2012 when ADT first accused Alder of...
Shareholder dispute puts century-old trust in the spotlight
The Texas Pacific Land Trust, a 130-year-old trust holding over 900,000 acres of land in the Texas oil and gas basin, has become the center of a high-profile shareholder fight in recent months. Unusual governing structure leads to tensions Since the 1880s, the Texas...
Lawsuit marks new territory for TCPA
British chemical company Venator Materials PLC (Venator) moved to dismiss a series of federal securities class action claims pursuant to the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA). Investors allege Venator misled investors about the impact of a fire at one of its...
A closer look at Huawei’s motion for summary judgment
In our last post, we discussed Huawei's case against the United States government and its allegations that Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA") is unconstitutional. Specifically, Huawei claims the NDAA violates the Bill of Attainder, Due...
Huawei seeks to expedite its lawsuit against the U.S.
Recently, Chinese tech company Huawei moved for summary judgment in its lawsuit against the United States. By doing so, Huawei argues there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on its claim concerning the...
Hitchcock waterfront property dispute continues
A dispute involving upscale waterfront development properties in Houston-Galveston is headed to court, according to the business owner at the heart of the clash. Waterfront business owner Paul Leviner says the water in the marina is unsafe for boats due to lack of...
Workers accuse Boeing of retaliating against union activity
In November of last year, Richard Mester lost his job at a Boeing facility in South Carolina for allegedly failing to report a bird strike. As an Air Force veteran with 30 years' experience, Mester claims he could not have missed such an obvious issue. Instead, Mester...
Uber settles with drivers challenging contractor classification
Uber announced last week that the majority of the 60,000 arbitration demands filed by drivers have now settled. Drivers across the U.S. disputed their classification as independent contractors and demanded that the issue be resolved at arbitration. The settlement...
PMC files patent infringement suits against Google, Netflix
Personalized Media Communications LLC, the holder of nearly 100 patents relating to streaming media, filed suit in the Eastern District of Texas against several major media companies this spring - including Netflix and Google. The complaints PMC filed against Netflix,...